The Adventures of the Duchess of Filamondria
by naiad8
Summary: Scenes from the adult life of the Duchess of Filamondria, once known as Princess Sofia of Enchancia. From her first flares of magic, her discovery of the isle of Filamondria, to her binding ceremony to her Duke and beyond.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note - as always, I publish this to get it out of my head. I know many people hate Cedfia and accuse fans of vileness, but I will defend myself by saying that never has Sofia been less than 18 in any of my imaginings. Cedric is usually pretty oblivious or in denial about Sofia being a woman until he gets hit over the head with it, and then he only succumbs to naughtiness under duress.

I have all these scenarios in my head, and I will be writing them as I have time or when I can't get them out of my head otherwise. I may not have the time to ever write all the segues needed to link them properly. Fill in the blanks with a vivid imagination.

Scenario 1 - The Last Binding Spell

Inspired by the amazing artwork of the Cedfia fandom - especially Jess Deaton. Thank you for sharing your talent!

Unbetaed - a always appreciate comments about typos or other mistakes. Comments are love.

Sofia sat in the crystalline boat that had once led her on her very first mission as a Story Keeper. The tunnel back to the castle was as beautiful and interesting as it had been on that very first trip over a decade past, but Sofia was blind to it all. She sat bent over, elbows on her knees, her hands over her eyes and her mind whirling. She needed the time to think. Normally, Sofia rarely if ever took this enchanted boat anymore, having long mastered transporting herself by magic the relatively short distance from the Secret Library to her bedchamber. Cedric had long ago altered the wards surrounding the castle to allow her free passage, given her predilections for getting into trouble.

Oh no, no thinking of Cedric right now, not with what she had just seen. She would blush a crimson so deep she'd look like a tomato for hours.

She took a deep breath, trying to relax her tense shoulders. She took the end of her long auburn braid, curling the end around her fingers in a nervous habit she thought she'd outgrown, given how often Amber called her to task over it. She didn't know how she would be able to look at anyone the same every again. She knew about sex of course, her mother had explained things. But to see it, hear it...

As she'd gotten older, the stories she had to finish were more and more challenging, less black and white. Often there was no perfect happy ever after. There was war and disease and prejudice. She'd learned a great deal about the world and wasn't quite the bright-eyed innocent everyone thought her to be. But she believed in love despite all. Love she'd seen in so many forms, if kept hope and happiness in her heart every day. Love between friends and siblings and parents and now, love between lovers.

The story to complete today had been of two lovers, Sila and Jayon, who had been kept apart by their warring families. The war had grown so evil, both families had been cursed to have no children, the land barren and cold until they stopped their petty war. And she'd had to reunite them, help them marry and she'd had to remain for the ceremony to "unite the land" and "ensure fertility." She had to watch them discover each other and make love. Yes it was behind a linen screen and she'd only seen shadows. She'd tried to keep her eyes averted to give them as much privacy as she could. But this was a far different culture than her own, a land of heat and rich scents and bared skin. This was accepted tradition here. But the sound of their kisses, their moans, skin slapping against skin. The scent of sweat and musk mixed with incense.

Her skin buzzed with longing. More than ever in her eighteen years of life. No one had ever made her feel anything close to this.

Well, maybe not no one. But, she hadn't understood the tightness in her lower abdomen, the heaviness of her breasts. She hadn't understood what her body had been telling her. She'd thought her love was sweet and true and just a bit hopeless.

She'd never guessed her love might be much, earthier. More primal. Much more.

When the boat bumped the dock, she gasped, her body so sensitive she thought she might simply combust like a potion gone awry.

She had gotten back to the castle just in time for dinner, and she had dressed in a dinner gown in a shade of soft green and tried not to think about how the rasp of the stiff material of her corset made her nipples ache. Fortunately, the object of her current perseveration was not at dinner - no doubt taking his meal in his tower as he usually did when engaged in some project or other. If she was quieter at dinner than normal, her family made little mention of it.

No doubt they attributed her introspection to the fact she was leaving in less than three days for a long Grand Tour. Part diplomatic training, part matchmaking whirlwind, Sofia was scheduled to visit over a dozen courts across the world, with plans for additional jaunts if the opportunity arose. The length and breadth of the trip at been at her own request - she wanted to experience the world and understand international politics so that she could take up the efforts that Aunt Tilly had once done for Enchancia - international relations and promoting peaceful trade. The opportunity for adventure was a bonus. Possibly finding a man who would take her mind off of the Royal Sorcerer was another possible bonus, though she was beginning to doubt it was possible.

With an airy word to her family implying her need to continue packing, Sofia plodded toward her chambers, trying to not think about how her skin felt too tight and her mind kept bringing up images like the notch where his neck met his chest, revealed to her only when she'd accidentally charmed his yellow cravat into becoming a small, very polite, yellow snake. Or the black and grey strands of his hair, worn somewhat longer lately, or the odd tattoos on his fingers, usually covered by gloves but glowing almost silver in the moonlight on her eighteenth birthday, when he'd performed for her coming out Ball and made the very stars dance among the revelers. She kept wondering how those fingers would feel on her skin, or the taste of that notch in his neck, the feel of his hair between her fingers or how their shadows would move on the walls of his tower chamber in the candlelight as she had seen in Sila and Jayon move in their tale.

She reached her chambers and shed her dinner dress, then immediately dismissed Violet, claiming a headache and a need to rest before tackling the last preparations before leaving on Tour. Then she lay in her huge bed, staring at the ceiling and missing Clover so badly in that moment her heart felt leaden in her chest. Though how she ever could have talked to him about this ache in her, she had no idea, her cheeks blushing at the very idea. She couldn't talk to any of her Princess friends, who had been trained to never admit to such feelings, even though she knew some of them did absolutely scandalous things with their suitors, and their servants. And Jade and Ruby would listen to how she felt, but they would never understand what kept her from revealing her feelings, or how she could feel such things for Cedric in the first place.

He always treated her as a somewhat annoying apprentice. Perhaps a friend occasionally but no more. He liked showing off to her, and she was quite she he'd managed to get over his tendencies toward evildoing and his obsession with her Amulet, but to consider her in a romantic sense - no, he still thought of her as the eight year old who'd dragged him out of his tower one too many times.

She sighed, climbing out of bed and sitting by the window, staring across the castle toward that gloomy tower and wondering what he was doing tonight. She'd been avoiding him lately, as he'd seemed a bit too excited about her Tour, asking her if she could find various ingredients or books for him, planning out what potions she might need to take with her. She wanted him to be just a bit more sad that she was leaving, perhaps a bit worried that he would be lonely or that she'd return an engaged woman with no time to study magic seriously.

The tower was usually quite dark this time of night, with the candlelight Cedric used for his late night research barely a flicker from his workrooms. But tonight, the tower glowed a soft green, with the odd blue or purple flickering out from his chamber window - and Sofia grew very curious what could be happening, much less in his personal chambers.

She crushed the small wry voice in her head that whispered that she just wanted to gamble on the possibility that Cedric would suddenly find her irresistible and quench some of the fire of arousal that still pulsed within her. No, she was checking on him. As a friend. She resolutely stood and retrieved her wand from her bedside table and before she could think too hard, or put on a dressing gown, she transported to Cedric's workroom.

The room was nearly pitch dark, with only the odd green-blue glow from below giving any light. The elderly Wormwood was either out for the night or deeply asleep in the rafters, for she could not hear or see him anywhere. She swallowed thickly, then turned toward the stairs down to his chambers - someplace she'd never actually been before.

The glow from below grew brighter and more complex as she tiptoed down the stone steps. She was truly worried about Cedric - worried that some magic had gone bad and he was injured or sick. The colors of the light were beautiful and unsettling and she knew with every bit of the magically sense she'd nurtured in her heart that the light was powerful.

The door to his chambers was closed, the light filtering through the wide gap in the bottom sill. She whispered under her breath to the Amulet, filling her heart with her worry for Cedric, and ask to be small. She scrambled under the door sill and remained tiny and unnoticeable near the door. Her eyes didn't need to search the room for her Sorcerer. They were drawn to him like a moth to flame.

She was more than ready to burn. The light was him. Coming from his skin, shimmering and pulsing in waves along every muscle, shining in the grey-white-black of his multicolored hair, and swirling away from the dark bands and curved letters of his tattoos covering most of his arms and back. His bare back and arms. She'd rarely seen a man without a shirt, and never had she seen Cedric with more than a sliver of exposed skin.

The tattoos where beautiful, accentuating the lean muscle underneath. He was no longer quite the scrawny man she'd first met as a child. He'd gotten caught up in too many of her adventures, and started up a regular training routine with the Enchancian Guard after one too many times unable to catch up with her. She'd never imagined it could have had so many benefits.

He was still tall and lean, but Lord he was beautiful. The want pounded in her chest, blossomed in her womb and seemed to throb with every flicker of the colors burning on his skin, green and blue and purple like dark fire. They seemed to flow around him, and flow toward the corner where she crouched, no bigger than a mouse. She was terrified that he would discover her, but he paid no attention to those remarkable lights.

He stared intently at the ground, sprinkling something that looked like black sand from his wand. He'd rolled up a carpet and created a circle on the floor in the center of the room. She couldn't see very well from the floor, and so she scrambled along the floor past bookshelves and tapestries and over thick lush rug with soft fibers that caressed her bare legs as she waded through the knee high pile. Cedric seemed to have a taste for fine things, and she was very curious to see his rooms, but not so curious that she could take her eyes away from him. She climbed slowly but surely up a stack of books next to his nightstand. Once she got to the top, she could see swirling script written painstakingly in black powder on the stone floor, a dark liquid that looked suspiciously like blood, and tiny bits of metal ore she recognized from potion brewing. There were runes of power in at least three languages, and possibly in another one she'd never seen.

She should be afraid. Cedric had once wanted power, had nearly taken the Kingdom, but…he was good. Deep in his heart, he was good. Selfish occasionally. Cynically certainly. But whenever it really counted, he was everything good and noble. This couldn't be the black magic it appeared to be.

He was shaking by the time he finished, the light flickering brighter over his skin and still reaching toward her. It seemed to have grown in brilliance and power, as though it was draining him of strength. The mysterious flames suddenly seemed to burn high, swirling straight toward her and she let out a squeak of fright before covering her mouth.

His eyes darted toward the nightstand, but he didn't notice her. Instead he seemed to swat at a particular bright green flame, muttering softly. "Stop that! You aren't getting what you want. Not this time, not ever if I can help it."

He looked down at the circles of script and nodded definitively. He'd trapped himself in the center of the circle, with no way out without disturbing all his hard work. How long had he been working on this?

Her curiosity burned hot, wondering what he could be doing, what he was trying to deprive the light of? What was the light? It was beautiful and compelling. Her fingers fairly itched to touch it, and all the flesh underneath. She bit her lip to keep herself from whimpering.

He threw his wand across the room, and it clattered to a stop not far from the stack of books on which she was perched. He breathed in deep, the muscles of his chest and abdomen rippling in interesting ways. Then he reached out his hands to either side, straight out from his shoulders, palms down to the ground. His voice spoke, deeper and richer than she thought it could be, and it sent chills down her back and over her skin, bringing her arousal once again to a fever pitch.

"Magic reaching out to find

Your match to capture and unwind

I forge these bonds to keep you in

Your magic mine, not meant for sin

Wind and blood, wood and bone

Metal and fire, for me alone

I forge these bonds to keep you in

I'm all you'll be, I'm all you've been"

He bit off the last words with a bitter, almost sorrowful wail, and she watched as the rings surrounding on the floor pulsed a bright vicious green. Then his fingers clenched as he seemed to pull with all his strength, the muscles in his arms corded with tension. The rings began to glow white hot, rising up in the air and merging, metal and black powder and blood mixing and merging with complex alchemy that had Sofia gasping. The sheer amount of power being expended to forge metal, liquid metal, was something she'd never even conceived of. The ring of silver-black liquid began to undulate and swirl around Cedric, who had beads of sweat upon his brow. She could only see his profile, but she knew he was in pain, his teeth clenched. The liquid began to lash at his skin, burning him here and there with an audible sizzle that left behind a rune here or there on his skin, mirroring his other tattoos.

What was this? Were all of his tattoo burnt on in his way? Sofia was horrified that he would endure such pain. Why? Why would he do this?

He cried out, his body beginning to shake, the green flames on his skin growing darker, more malevolent as they seemed to fight the liquid metal snake that slithered around his body. His eyes where clenched shut, and a long scream issued from his throat. Something was wrong. Something was going very wrong, and Sofia was terrified for him. He was in agony, and it had to stop.

She stepped forward, not even knowing when Amulet and returned her to her regular size. She reached toward him, silently begging the Amulet for help. _Please. Please save him_. The Amulet surged with rose colored light once, then dimmed, and Sofia felt as though something was jerked away from her skin - like Violet pulling the sheets from her body when she was trying to sleep in. It wasn't painful, but it was alarming.

It was even more alarming when lights - flames mirroring those on Cedric's skin, erupted from her hands and arms in pink and red, copper and gold. The flames flowed through the air, crackling with power merging with the metal snake, causing the snake to glow bright gold. Then the metal surged toward Cedric, the ring around him tightening and then colliding with the swirling storm of green and blue and purple flames. There was an explosion of pure color and booming sound. White light erupted through the room, blinding Sofia and causing her to scream in terror.

There was a moment of pure silence, and then there was only the sound of Cedric panting on the ground, and Sofia gasping for air from where she landed on the floor up against a bookshelf. They stared at each other in the glow of the Amulet, the only remaining light in the room.

Once that light faded, leaving them in utter darkness, Cedric began to curse, loudly and inventively.

"Morgana's mammaries, what were you thinking!"

Sofia felt a moment of fear, and then she let indignation rise in her like a fire. She stood and flicked her wand at the bedside table and a brace of candles burst into light, revealing Cedric pacing back and forth over the now bare spot on the floor, his hands in his hair and muttering vile things under his breath.

"I was thinking that you were about to die in a blaze of deadly magic. I was thinking I could help you, you you….ungrateful…..man!"

She really needed to work on her insulting skills if she didn't want to continue to sound like a child. He whipped his head around to stare at her, and she felt his eyes flicker over her body. Belatedly she realized she was actually scandalously underdressed in only a thin nightshift that was really too short - her better nightclothes had all be packed away in the many trunks that would accompany her on her Tour.

She could feel the blush rising from her chest, and she watched Cedric as he watched the blush rise up her neck and bloom on her face. The look in his eyes - was that anger? Hunger? She had never seen his eyes so incredibly dark.

"What are you playing at, little girl? Coming here in your nightdress? Did you think to get one more lesson from me before you left? Planned to learn skills to practice on all those Princelings you'll be courting?"

Her mouth dropped open in shock. What? What did he…. "Oh! How dare you! Do you think me so low? Some kind of…of whore?" She stepped toward him, ready to beat her fists against his skin but he backed away.

"Princesses are bartered and sold off in marriage to the prince or duke or emir with the best offer." His voice was cold, but his eyes were still hot on her skin, his focus now on the pebbled nipples that strained against thin silk.

"And you think losing my purity with you would raise my price?" She tried to sound disdainful and not interested, but her voice came out as more of a purr than full of cutting derision.

"What I think doesn't matter. I'm just a lowly sorcerer." He turned away, padding across the thick Tangu carpets he had strewn across his chambers toward what must be his wardrobe. He pulled a robe off a hook nearby and threw it at her. "Here, wear this. If anyone comes up to investigate the noise…"

"I will transport back to my chambers and no one will be the wiser." Sofia just let the robe fall to the floor, crossing her arms under her breasts and watching him swallow as he stared at the result of her breasts being pushed together, her cleavage more impressive than usual. It was then she noticed the new tattoo.

She walked toward him and he backed up, comically crashing into his wardrobe, knocking a hat he never wore off of the top and on to the floor. She pressed her hands into his skin, touching the new shape on his skin, still hot to the touch. He sucked in a breath as she touched him, but she ignored him, examining the magically created tattoo with rapt attention. It circled his neck, a silver so dark it was no wonder she mistook it for black when she'd seen all the others on his arms and back. It was a like necklace, or a chain of office, thick links of chain etched into his skin, and over the center of his chest, an oval that looks remarkably like her own Amulet, all rendered in liquid metal. Steel - she realized. Steel embedded into his flesh, voluntarily. All of them, every one of the tattoos he bears is this dark metal. A binding. All of them are binding him, binding that green blue flame inside of him.

"Charcoal and iron and blood. Magical steel to seal in my excess magic," Cedric whispered in a forlorn voice. "I did my first binding when I was thirteen. My magic threatened to blow up my home, and my father was terrified of me."

"For you. I'm sure he was terrified for you." She stroked her hand over his chest, trying to give comfort, but he pulled away, sweeping down the the floor and picking up the robe she had refused to don, thrusting his arms into the sleeve with a viciousness the garment didn't deserve.

"Of me. No magic user has their magic flare like that so young or so strong. I was dangerous. Am dangerous. I would try to bind another to me, most likely against their will, unless the magic was controlled. Father found the first spell of binding. I created the others. They set me free to be myself, alone."

Then he was stalking toward her, and then it was her turn to be pressed into the wardrobe door, his hands clutching her shoulders, her skin burning even through the cotton wherever his fingers touched. "You have likely just undone years of effort, young lady. Whatever magic you pulled from yourself to finish this damn spell - you probably bound part of yourself to me." He shook her, then let go suddenly, pacing across the room as far as he could get from her, his hands once again buried in his hair and pulling at his scalp as he sat on the edge of his large, four poster bed.

"Well then, it wasn't against my will then. I wanted to help." She wanted to be brave enough to follow him across the room and into that bed, but she seemed frozen in place.

"You want your magic bound to mine? Your very life force bound to a second rate wizard who is twice your age."

"You aren't twice my…"

"I'm thirteen years older than you, Sofia. I'm not a royal. I'm not even very nice." He stared at her from his perch on the bed. "You deserve everything good in this world, Princess Sofia. you deserve a happily ever after, more than any princess who has ever existed. You need to find the love you want, not to be bound to an old man."

"I have found the love I want. I want you."

She took a single step forward and he held up a hand and laughed darkly. "You are mostly like under the influence of very powerful magic at the moment. Your damn Amulet has taken a sliver of your magic - how I don't know, as you've never shown the tiniest flare in my presence, and I would have noticed if you had - and bound that sliver to my own magic. The rest of your magic is probably very interested in binding completely, regardless of how you would feel in the morning." His gaze moved down to the bed on which he sat very deliberately, and she suddenly had a remarkable insight into how such a magic binding would be achieved.

She stood up straight and took a few more steps across the room, "I wanted you this afternoon. And this morning. And the week before that and the year before that. I know my own mind, my own body and my heart. You are…"

His voice was ice, "I have never wanted to bind my magic to another. I have no desire to see into your pathetic soul or to give you access to mine. You are no doubt an awkward little virgin, and tears have no place in a binding. Get out of here, little girl, while I try and figure out how to undo this debacle before it drives us both insane."

Hot tears stung her eyes, and she turned away, unable to withstand those cold eyes looking at her another moment. She ran up the steps, bit off the transport spell and arrived in her room dizzy and disoriented. She collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep, the Amulet singing a soft, almost apologetic song in her mind.

The remaining days before she was due to leave passed so slowly she thought she might indeed go insane. She saw no sign of the Royal Sorcerer, and she was glad. The arousal that had coursed through her veins had turned cold in the night, and she felt none of the unquenchable need he seemed to imply she would feel if their magic was bound. Perhaps he had unbound them without her knowledge, and everything was back as it had been before. Except she would never be able to enter his tower as an apprentice or a friend again, he'd made sure of that.

Dressed for travel, it was very early in the morning when Sofia walks one last time through her favorite gardens, despite a soft cover of fog. She stopped to pay homage to all the tiny graves she has made for her animal friends over the years. Her fingers drifted over the surface of her amulet as she remembered each of her tiny friends, and she wondered for the twentieth time if she should leave it in the royal treasury as Aunt Tilly had done when she began her adventuring. But Tilly said the Amulet would let her know when it was time to part ways, and Sofia had felt nothing of that sort - in fact the Amulet felt warm and soothing to the touch each time she stroked it, like a comfortable blanket that surrounded her. She was glad she would have it with her on this journey.

There was the softest cough behind her, and she spun around, seeing Cedric seem to appear out of the fog, his hair just a bit wilder than usual, his robes swirling around him as though swathing him in protective wings. They stared at each other for a long still moment when not even the birds sang in the dawn's light. This would likely be the last time she saw him for a very long time, and something within her refused to give up completely.

She stepped toward him, but he spoke first. "I'm sorry, Sofia. I'm sorry to have been so harsh with you. You didn't deserve that."

She smoothed a hand over the dark green bombazine of her skirt, unable to look him in the eye. "No - I didn't. And I'm sorry that whatever magic I did seemed to compromise something so important to you. It was never my intention to bind us against your will."

He actually whimpered, and her eyes rose to his, alarmed. He shook his head, biting his thin bottom lip as though he was trying to keep words from escaping. "We are not fully bound. It is not something insurmountable. I…it will not prevent you from taking a husband of your own station."

Anger tore through her. "And what exactly is my station? A princess in name only, with no royal blood. I don't fetch much on that auction block, and I refuse to think my duty to my family and my country could be served in such a way, to marry for politics and not for love."

She crossed the few feet of grass separating him and put her hands on his chest. She had grown considerably, ending up taller than her sister Amber, and not so short compared to Cedric that she couldn't reach his lips. And he stayed stock still and she lifted herself on her toes and pressed her lips to his, tasting his surprisingly soft warm lips with her own. It was only a moment, but it was filled with something akin to the static charge before a thunderstorm.

She backed away, knowing that Bailiwick would be searching for her soon, despite his bad knees. She had to go to Tangu, her first stop and a long coach flight away.

"Don't…don't give up on us, Cedric. Don't go and bind yourself to anyone else, not until you give me a chance to prove to you that it's you I really want." She spun and dashed into the fog, turning a corner into the hedges and stopping - wondering if she should return for one more kiss, one more try to get him to understand, when she heard him whisper into the fog.

"There is no one else I would ever, could ever be bound to. I'm yours, you silly girl. But you could never be mine."

She heaved a sigh, then smiled softly. Foolish foolish man. He needed time to forget her youth, her perceived status. If she insisted on their relationship now, her family would never understand. And she needed time to grow, to cease being the unknowledgable little girl Cedric spoke of - she wanted to know her body as well as her magic before she offered him her heart again. She walked quietly toward the castle and toward a long series of tearful goodbyes, before stepping into her coach and into her longest adventure yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Unbetaed and ridiculously long. This has been eating at me to write it for ages, though I'm terrible at writing adventure. Any critique is welcome, and please let know what is wrong so I can fix it. I can't look at it anymore and need to get back to WORK.

 **The Founding of Filamondria**

The ocean was very cold and very black in late October, regardless of how far south she might be or what form she wore. There was only a sliver of moonlight winking at Sofia through the water above her head. The open ocean at night is more than a little beautiful, and more than a little terrifying. Even if there was a stiff wind in the air above her, a few fathoms beneath the torrid waves the water was as peaceful as a placid lake. She was glad that the sound that has been guiding her carried through the water just as well as it did through the air. It was a sad, sweet sound, full of longing and pain.

But it wasn't, as Captain Bell believed, a siren. She'd met a siren once and that is not at all how they sounded, especially when she was wearing her Amulet. That song was hungry, and this was just…sad. But the song wasn't just a trick of Samhain spirits. There was something here, something to discover.

After two weeks aboard ship, Sofia acknowledged that she was just a bit claustrophobic and was desperate for adventure. The months of proper ceremony and courtly intrigue before that\ had also been stifling. There was the occasional bit of trouble and so an interesting person or creature to meet to add some spice. And it was true that some of the books she had discovered hidden in that tiny second library in the family tower in Castle Firenzia and those sculptures on the wall of that temple she had stolen away in Jennai had been very very useful for her ongoing education in….binding.

But on the ship she could only mull over her newly acquired knowledge for so long before her body couldn't stand it anymore. She'd begun to see a faint glow in her skin whenever she thought about the man she longed to bind herself to - the patterns of red and orange and gold as intriguing as the night she'd first seen Cedric alight in the green fires of his own escaping power. Even now, swimming in the icy cold water, light danced across her skin and scales softly as she thought about him. The Amulet of Avalor glowed softly around her neck and the flames died down. If the Amulet was acting to keep her from glowing, something important was going to happen. It gave Sofia strength in her bones-deep knowledge that she was not here on a fool's errand - just some excuse to try out her mermaid's tail once again. Someone needed saving.

Her resolve was tested only a moment later as her belly cramped again, and she fervently wished that altering her body into that of a mermaid also changed the nature of her monthly cramps. They were particularly bad now, as she had run out of Cedric's excellent pain relieving elixir just last month, and had had no access to a cauldron and supplies to try and brew her own. Besides that, her palm plagued her in the salt water, the slice in her skin had opened up just this morning, and it was as mystifying as all the other little injuries and unexplained pains she'd been experiencing the last few months. She hopes that between the inevitable result of her cramps and the slash on her palm she won't attract any sharks.

Never had being a mermaid meant being so uncomfortable. All she really wanted was to be back in her boring bed with a hot water bottle for her stomach and maybe her mother. But she was the Story Keeper, and a princess to boot, and so it was time to ignore the aches and pains of her body and find out what on earth, or under the sea, the song was.

"Someday you'll find me

Then we'll be free.

Someday I'll love you

With love that is true.

Ignore all the gray

Stay true come what may.

Stay true to your heart

And our lives will start."

It wasn't in Enchancian, or any other of the many languages Sofia had learned. The Amulet seemed to make it remarkably easy for her to learn human languages as well as animal ones - she would certainly miss that when she had to give it up. Then again, Aunt Tilly seemed to manage just fine. But Captain Bell and all of the sailors on the ship seemed to have no idea what the song meant, and just spoke nervously about the sounds of the October winds on the sea and that she would be safer in her cabin and away from the tossing waves.

The journal to Cordoba should have been uneventful and quick, but the early winter storms they'd encountered had slowed their progress, preventing any magical acceleration of their ship's speed. It was a slow and plodding pace across unpredictable waters. Sofia had every confidence that she could find the ship again, her speed beneath the waves as a mermaid exceeding the pace of the ship with her most of her sails furled tight in the restless winds.

But she was growing somewhat tired, and was well past midnight, with dawn not much farther away. She would be missed. She would hate to turn back now though, no matter how uncomfortable she was. Alone with her thoughts in a tiny cabin was dangerous, and she shouldn't keep thinking about Cedric like a love sick ninny. His delicious smirk, that hair she wanted to run her fingers through, his voice when he was being commanding, or the binding tattoos, all those dark swirls over taut muscles – gah.

And now the song had gotten weaker. This is what getting lost in thoughts of Cedric always got her lately, into trouble. She twirled in a graceful circle, proud of the swimming prowess she'd achieved, and saw precisely nothing but dark implacable water in every direction. Sighing, she looked up at the unpredictable surface of the sea and thrashed her tail reluctantly toward the surface, fully prepared for the blast of freezing wind that would assault her upon contact with the air.

She broke through the surface with an impressive splash, soaring high into the air before arcing back into the water. The wind was relatively mild, and the sky was clear, the moon still shining brightly. It was actually warmer than she was used to for October, given how far south they'd travelled toward Cordoba across the sea.

Sofia saw nothing but endless waves to the north, and turned around expecting a similar vision to the south, only to shriek in surprise at the gray green ship that was mere feet away from her. She had no time too escape, and closed her eyes in terror, expecting to feel the impact any moment. But a full minute went by with nothing.

She opened her eyes at the sound of a voice speaking a language she couldn't make out.

"Hey það ertu í lagi!"

The ship had stopped dead in the sea. And she was in the middle of it. The ship, not just the sea. She swam away instinctively, passing through what should have been the solid hull of a ship, but she felt nothing but a shiver over her skin. Her eyes scanned the small ship, looking for the owner of the voice she'd heard. Her amulet glowed a dull pink beneath the waves, and suddenly the voice was understandable.

"Hey! You're all right! I'm up here, Miss Mermaid!"

She looked up at the very front of the low ship's prow, and there was a man who was the same grey green as every bit of his ship. He smiled widely at her, a gap between his two front teeth in an other broad but handsome face. She had no idea what the color of his skin or hair might have been when he was alive, but now he was clearly a ghost. A friendly ghost, but still a ghost.

Samhain spirits indeed.

She swallowed thickly. "Hello Mister..." well, it seemed a bit rude to call him a ghost. Sir Dax had never seemed to mind, but unlikely the still somewhat colorful Sir Dax, this ghost was completely grey green and his clothes seemed practically ancient – a thick linen shirt, and was that a skirt he was wearing? The ship was very basic, with only a small square sail that showed no hint of movement in the wind. It slid slowly through the waves, and Sofia swam next to it, looking up at the ghostly captain.

"Mondar! Call me Mondar! I can't believe you can see me! And you are still here! I haven't spoken to anyone at all in...well, I'm not really sure how long. Everybody always runs away!" He smiled widely, and she couldn't really be scared of him with that wide easy grin he wore. But suddenly his face grew serious, even desperate. "Have you ever seen a girl name Fila? Tall, long blonde hair like ripe wheat, eyes the color of spring leaves?

She shook her head, sad that she couldn't help him. "I'm sorry Mondar, but I don't know anyone named Fila." Her every instinct told her this was exactly what she was meant to be doing out in the cold dark sea. Helping out this particular ghost. "Can you tell me more about her, Mr. Mondar?"

"Oh, just Mondar. I'm just a fisherman. Or, I was. Had my own fleet I suppose. Well off enough to offer for her, the chief's youngest daughter. Fila was everything that was good and sweet. Had the voice of an angel, and the heart of a warrior. I'm looking for her – are you certain you haven't seen her."

Sofia sculled the water gently with her tail, keeping even with the ghostly ship as it moved slowly through the water once again. She bit her lip, then answered, sure she was on the right track. "I haven't seen her, but I think I may have heard her singing. Does she like to sing sad songs?"

Mondar nodded sadly from his perch above her. "Not when I knew her in the village. But now, that's all I ever hear. Her voice, calling for me. But I can't find her. That damned magician stole her away and now I fear I'll never save her."

"What magician?"

"Vitki! Vitki the Vicious. He travelled through every village from Fitgar to Polirk, reading runes and selling potions. He'd taken a fancy to her, to my Fila, and he threatened to curse the village unless the chief gave up Fila. But Chief Unruk laughed in his face and told him to never return. The next day Fila disappeared, and all the village animals were sick. And all of the ships had disappeared except this one I'd put up for repair behind my barn. So I chased them. I never stopped chasing them. I died chasing them." His eyes welled with tears, which turned into green mist the moment they touched his cheeks, swirling away into the wind. Sofia found herself crying in sympathy, at a loss for words at the sheer force of his pain.

The ship seemed to waver for a moment, and Sofia saw the heart of the ship was a tangle of wooden board, rope, seaweed and bones. She let out a yelp, but then the ghost ship was back to its full shape, and Mondar had a determined look in his eyes. He pulled away from the edge of the longship and waved an arm at the sails. "I hear her song – I must keep searching. " The sails filled abruptly with the wind, and the ship lurched forward.

And Sofia heard it too, the sad lyrics had grown louder. Sofia swum quickly along the sides to keep up. "I'll help you search!"

Then with a sudden snap, the wind died completely. Mondar pointed forward, his eyes glowing green. "The gray! There's a way through it, I just can't find it." It was a fog – the thickest fog Sofia had ever seen. The wind and waves that had plagued the sea for hundred of leagues around them just stopped, leaving the fog and a glassy sea that was eerie in it's stillness under the light of the moon.

Mondar hit the side of his ship, and smoke billowed up from where he struck at the spectral wood plank. "I've looked for centuries, and I'll look centuries more if that's what it takes. There's nothing you can do to help, mermaid."

"I'm Princess Sofia of Enchancia, and I can do something you can't!"

He stared at her in confusion.

She gave him a wide grin. "I can look underwater."

She dove down, determined to find Fila and let the lovers meet once again. This story needed an ending, and she would be the one to make it a happy one.

She sped through the dark water, taking in every detail of her surroundings. The gray fog from above did not extend under the water. She came up again to the surface, just a few feet from the fog's beginning, and swam forward cautiously. The fog grew thicker and thicker, until she couldn't swim anymore. There was a crackle of power around her, and she was thrown backwards with a splash.

Mondar's voice called out over the water. "I told you, Princess. No way through!"

Sofia would have stamped her foot, if she'd had feet. She flicked her tail out of the water instead, sending a wave crashing through the preternaturally still water as she dove beneath the waves. And yes, just a fathom down, there was no sign of the thick gray fog barrier. She swam forward tentatively, and she still felt resistance when she came to the point, but following her instincts she dove down farther, until the resistance disappeared and Sofia could swim freely forward.

The water here was pitch dark, with no sign of the moonlight filtering through the water. Sofia pushed down the sense of fear so much darkness evoked, and instead tried to listen as hard as she could for the sounds of the sea. There was land nearby, she could hear the sound of water hitting rock, even if the surface above had been spelled so still. And it was a spell, Sofia had no doubt of that. There were animal sounds as well, increasing as she moved forward, a sure sign of land as well. And, of course, there was Fila's song growing louder and louder.

Excited but still cautious, Sofia ignored the ache in her belly, the stinging of her hand, and the oppressiveness of the dark water to swim forward. It took time, and a few bumps into sandbars and a tangle with a swaying patch of kelp, but eventually Sofia knew she was close enough to land to risk the surface once again.

She surfaced as quietly as possible. The world was still covered in gray fog, but the sound of Fila's voice was an unmistakable beacon. She swam toward the sound, hoping she wasn't being fooled by the fog once again. But no – slowly the fog dissipated enough to reveal a rocky beach. It was an island, one on no map Sofia had ever seen.

Blowing out a slow breath, Sofia touched her amulet, always grateful for its gifts to her. She rose softly in a cloud of golden sparks and touched her slippered feet on to the surface of the rocky beach. She sighed, looking down at the thick cotton nightgown and robe that she wore, and wished she had not been quite so impatient to dive into the ocean and had remembered to dress.

No help for it. She reached into the pocket of her robe and drew out her wand, and with a whispered, _mutatio vestimenta,_ the nightgown, robe and slippers changed into sturdy but plain boots, trousers and a thick linen shirt and wool jacket. Finally feeling a bit warmer, Sofia looked around, curious about this unknown island.

The beach was made up of pebbles and larger smooth stones. Sofia walked careful toward higher ground on legs just a bit unsteady after having spend several hours as a tail. She scrambled up a small cliff face, and at the top looked around with wide eyes. The island was not the tiny speck she'd thought, but large. Very large. In the far distance there was a mountain as large as anything she'd seen in Enchancia, and was that smoke coming from the top? Was it a volcano?

There were a few trees and ferns in small forest stands, but most of what she could see were softly rolling hills of what must be some kind of grass, though it seemed short and stunted from what she could see in the dim moonlight that seeped through the distant fog surrounding the island. It was eerily quiet, though she could hear the soft night sounds of a few birds and the rustling of creatures, so the island was not totally barren of animal life.

Just as she worried that she'd lost Fila's song as a guide, she heard a shout.

"You! You used magic! I felt it!"

Sofia turned at the sound of the ancient language, and standing on a rock not twenty feet away was a green gray woman, her eyes ablaze with light. Her long hair rippled about her on a wind that was otherwise nonexistent, and her dress was just as simple and ancient as those of Mondar in his ghost ship beyond the fog. Sofia was grateful once again for the gifts of the Amulet, as she could speak to this poor broken woman from the past in her own language.

"Fila? Is your name Fila? I'm Sofia. I'd like to..."

"Can you do more magic? Are you a witch?"

Fila seemed desperate, her eyes wide and very very bright.

Sofia held up her wand sheepishly. "I can do some magic, but I'm not really a fully trained sorceress."

Fila closed her eyes and seemed to slump. She sat down on the rock and gathered her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms about her knees. Sofia walked toward her slowly, approaching her as she would a frightening animal. Fila's eyes watched her with such sorrow, and she shed tears that blurred away into green mist, just as Mondar had done. Sofia bit her lip, looking up at the ghost up on her rock and trying to think of the right thing to say, and as usual, she decided that the simple truth was likely the best policy.

"I met Mondar on the sea, you know. He's just past the fog. He's still looking for you."

Fila straightened so suddenly Sofia actually jumped back a bit in alarm. "Truly! Mondar, he's still out there looking for me? But, Vitki told me that no one would ever come for me, that everyone was dead!"

Sofia shook her head sadly. "Mondar did come to look, but there's this fog out there that prevents anyone from coming closer." Sofia sighed, hating that she had to ask thing question, and hoping some kind of resolution to this tale was still possible. "You do know that you are...that you are a ghost, right Fila? That your died long ago?"

Fila gave her a look that was so like Amber than Sofia had to restrain a laugh. "My bones rest on this very rock. I starved to death so long ago I have only sketchy memories of my life. But I remember Mondar."

Sofia let out a breath, resisting the urge to search the ground around rock and avoid stepping on anything looking bone-like. "But you must have hoped he was looking for you. You were singing that song, after all. The song was for him, wasn't it?"

Fila nodded, and let out an enormous sigh that turned into a green shimmering cloud in the air before dissipating. "On this night and a few surrounding it, I can sing for him. I always hope that wherever or whenever he is, he can hear me."

"Oh, he can hear you all right. He's been searching for centuries. And every sailor on these waters has heard you too. You've got half of the tough as nails sailors on two continents terrified of this place!"

Fila smiled wickedly. "Serves them right. Sailors should be scared of something. Why not me!" But then a sad, wistful look returned to her ghostly green face. "How did you get past the fog? I spent a solid month trying, but then I ran out of any food and...it wasn't much longer after than that that I passed away."

Sofia waved a hand toward the water. "It does seem impossible to get here or away via the surface, but the fog and the barrier within don't extend too deeply underwater. And well, the magic you felt was probably me returning to my human form."

Fila blinked at her, and Sofia shrugged, "I can turn into a mermaid. Sometimes."

"I thought they were a legend? Sailors' crazy talk."

Sofia giggled. "Nope, real as you and me. And most people think ghosts are legends too."

Fila laughed loudly, the sound echoing strangely through the dismal countryside and over the too-still water. "Unfortunately, I couldn't swim when I was alive, and I don't think I could start now."

"Are you certain? You wouldn't need to breathe!" Sofia tried to sound cheerful, but it fell a bit flat.

Fila shook her head. "I can't set foot in the water. I've tried. I just seem to melt away. I'm only really here and aware a few days of the year – I don't want to waste that time tyring to literally pull myself back together."

Sofia nodded decisively. "Well then, there's nothing for it. We'll have to get rid of this fog then, and that barrier too. You and Mondar deserve to see each other."

Sofia stood up, presing her hand to the Amulet and getting ready to return to the water and swim back to Mondar, but Fila spoke first. "Be careful, Sofia. Vitki – he poured himself into the spell to trap me here. He poured so much of his magic into his horrible spell that he collapsed when he finished, and died just a few minutes later. I dragged his body all the way to the edge of the volcano in the hopes that he would burn up someday and not corrupt the land. But the spell lasted, long past his death. I figure if my ghost haunts the island, and Mondar's the sea, then Vitki's ghost is part of that evil fog."

Sofia felt a knot of fear clench in her belly, but she pushed it away. "Thanks for the warning, Fila. But I have to do something."

Fila smiled, tears once again leaking in to mist from the corners of her eyes. "Thank you! You are a true princess!"

Sofia tilted her head, curious. She glanced down at her conjured but plain clothes and boots. "How did you know I am a princess?"

Fila shrugged, "How could you not be, if you are willing to do so much for Mondar and me?"

Sofia laughed softly, nodding her head. "It needs to be done!" Then she pressed a hand against the Amulet and felt her need to return to the sea be understood by the rose colored stone.

With another symphony of golden sparks, Sofia dove into the cold, dark ocean, and swam her way back to find a ghostly ship, and more help for her plan.

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On the other side of the fog barrier but still underwater, Sofia began a high-pitched song she knew would sound horrible to anyone on the surface, but worked very well to broadcast a message thru the ocean depths. Princess Oona had spent quite some time teaching it to her, and Sofia hoped she was doing it justice.

But soon enough, an array of grumpy, sleepy but curious creatures began to circle around her, and Sofia outlined her plans. Curious dolphins circled and gave excited chirps, a few whales hovered in silent majesty, sharks circled below ominously but kept a respectful distance, and even a few giant octopi had risen from the depths to investigate her song, a variety of colors rippling along their skins as they listened. She explained the problem, and her plan to attack Vitki's barrier. None of the dolphins, whales, octopi, seals, or even the sharks liked the barrier and what it did to the nearby reefs, so all agreed to help to try and destroy it, and open up the island to sea life once again. They swam off to recruit more help, for this island was no small sandbar – it was the size of a small country.

Sofia talked to many many creatures, filling her impromptu army with a vast number of new recruits. It felt so good to talk to animals freely, to have a bold course of action and the will and strength to see it through. To let her magic, all the magic she had worked so long to master at Cedric's side, to flow freely. After months and months at court with the petty problems of royal personalities to deal with, this felt like a wonderful stretch after being too long asleep.

Hours later, she followed a dolphin who had spotted the green glow of Mondar's ship from underwater just a few minutes earlier, and she breached the water with flip of her tail. Mondar let out a satisfying little shriek, which shouldn't have entertained her as much as it did, perhaps she had hung around Cedric for too long as a child.

"I found Fila! It was possible to get through the barrier from underwater. I assume you never tried that?"

"Can't swim. Never could."

Sofia resisted the desire to roll her eyes. How can all these people live and die so close to the sea, but never learn to swim!

"Well, I've got another plan. I found some animal friends who are willing to try and help push on the barrier once I have a spell in place to help. I'll need you to follow me though – I'm hoping you and Fila might be able to help."

Mondar fairly bounced on the deck of his ghostly ship. "Anything! Anything! This is the best chance I've had in centuries to see her!"

The clouds and potential storms of earlier in the night had passed over them, and the sky was slowly lightning into the brighter cerulean blue of pre-dawn through the patchy clouds that were left behind. The ocean here was still affected by the too-calm water from near the fog barrier, and it was easy enough for Sofia to stay treading water with her tail as she spun away from the eager Mondar to awkwardly reach into the halter top of her mermaid guise to find her wand where her wand had always appeared once she shifted forms. Sofia wondered if the Amulet had a sense of humor about all this, but where else would a mermaid store a magic wand? Tails didn't come with pockets after all.

She spun around once again to face the barrier, then slipped beneath the waves to sing out her signal to all her new animal friends.

She reappeared, shaking her wet hair, which had long fallen out of her nighttime braid, away from her face. Taking a deep breath, she began a flurry of spells to counter the remaining magic of a long-dead mage.

"Caligo evanescet!" and the fog mostly dissipated, leaving a blurred dome surrounding the entire island like an enormous pot lid.

"Cooperari magnus!" Her voice boomed out, loud enough to be heard on the surface and below. She couldn't see Mondar, her focus totally centered on the vast dome that had been revealed, but he was staring open mouthed in wonder at her power and at the heads of hundreds of creatures that had risen to the surface and poked their heads above the sea surrounding the blurry grey thing that had been hiding in the fog as long as he'd been a ghost. He was really a bit terrified. This mermaid was really rather scary when she was determined.

Shaky at first from growing stronger, a pulse of purple white light streamed out of Sofia's wand and because to stream from dolphin to whale to seal to shark, touching each sea creature on the head and illuminating them up with a pure white light that seemed to light up the pre-dawn more than the setting moon. When the light had disappeared into the horizon it took only a minute for it to reappear in the other direction, revealing yet more animals surrounding the barrier.

When the light returned once more to light up Sofia herself, she smiled widely. Her voice rang out again, ringing with command. "Subtraxerim util!"

And every animal swam toward the barrier, and Mondar cringed, waiting for the inevitable violence of the barrier throwing them all back, but it never came. The barrier shrank from the oncoming hoarde, shrinking farther and farther toward what looked like an island beyond.

Mondar began to leap around the deck of his ship, his sails filling with mystical wind and he moved forward, knowing he was closer to Fila than he'd been in many lifetimes.

When the barrier slammed into the first rock on the coast of the island, Sofia's focus was broken by the enormous bang and the rain of pulverized rock falling around her little navy. She stopped the spell, resorbing the light of her magic that had been stretched farther than ever before. She felt tired but exhilerated, and she knew she still had more to do. The animals came up to her, chattering or bellowing or slurping their questions, and Sofia tried to calm them.

She turned to Mondar, "Get as close to the barrier as you can without harming yourself. I'm going back to talk with Fila and see if she can help guide you closer.

Sofia dived under the water, and was relieved to see that she could still just squeeze under the barrier and get to the same beach that she'd left Fila on those hours ago. She called on her Amulet again, and though she was yet again in nightgown and robe when she reclaimed her legs, she didn't have the energy to fix the problem. She staggered a few steps up the beach and found her own rock to sit on while she rested her weary body. Her cramps were back and her hands still stung, and she was so hungry she had contemplated trying to see if mermaids could digest seaweed, but she'd accomplished something to help these lovers. She was still a Story Keeper of sorts, even if she was far from the Secret Library.

"You actually changed it. I, I can almost see through it." Fila seemed to whisper from her rock just a few feet away. Sofia was surprised she'd managed to get so close, she was just that tired.

"I hope to break it, if I can catch my breath." Sofia replied with a smile in her voice. "Sing your song, Fila. Let Mondar know you are here."

Fila sang her song, which was markedly less sad than it had been earlier in the full dark of the night, and she stared out to sea, enraptured at the revealed barrier, so close now it almost touched the outlying rocks at the edge of Fila's beach.

Instead of staring outward at the barrier she planned to break, Sofia closed her eyes and focused, pushing down and inward, trying to tap into the maximum extent of her magical resources. She heard Fila's song fill the unnatural quiet. She felt the cool, unmoving air against her skin. The scent of old seaweed and the salt from the sea tickled her nose. She moved deeper within. Aunt Tilly had introduced her to this technique, but it had been Cedric who'd helped her use it to improve her focus in magic. And so it was here she felt closest to him, here in the core of her magic self. In some impossible way he was there, with her. She could feel an echo of his presence, wry and cool and soothing in the warm turmoil of her exhaustion. She felt her breath slow and strength return to her body as her magic swirled within her, as though he was fast asleep and dreaming far away and his restful state translated to her tired body.

When she opened her eyes, she wore a soft smile.

"There's a greenish glow just out there, and I think Vitki is angry." Fila said, crouched on the very tip of her rock, poised as though she would jump into the surf on the beach below if she possibly could. Sofia looked at the barrier just beyond the beach and frowned. There was a green glow, no doubt Mondar's ghost ship. But between the two of them and the green glow of the ship, there was a thick barrier, swirling in malevolent patterns of dark grey. Sofia looked toward the barrier above them and on either side, and she noticed that it seemed thinner, clearer. Sofia wondered if on the other side of this vast island if there was now no barrier at all.

Sofia smiled, just a bit wickedly. She could do this.

She stood on her rock, and leapt lightly on to Fila's rock, which seemed to shock the ghost.

"What are you doing, Sofia?"

Sofia kept smiling. "I'm getting you as close as possible to your Mondar, of course."

She bent and tapped her wand against the uneven bounder jutting into the sea, and spoke softly, "Partum naviculam."

Fila gasped as the surface beneath her gray green misty feet went from craggy rock to rough wood. With a thump and a splash, a raft set sail into the calm sea, heading straight toward the barrier that had created misery for a thousand years.

Fila wailed softly, dropping to the surface of the raft and clinging for dear life, though she had none of it. She looked back at the stark, barren island with sheer desperation.

Sofia chirped confidently, "Sometimes we need to try something new to get want we really want."

Fila nodded and gritted her teeth as the raft went further out into the sea to meet the swirling grey barrier and the green glow beyond.

Closer and closer they came, and Fila could see that the green glow was a ship. One of her people's ships. Specifically, Mondar's ship.

"How is this possible?" Fila cried, as she recognised that the blurry figure at the ship's prow must be her Mondar, still searching for her for so many years.

"You waited for him, and he searched for you. A love like that is stronger than one silly dark magician. Love can conquer anything." Sofia spoke with absolute conviction. Love could defeat evil, and it could also convert one stubborn some-what dark sorcerer into enough of a prince for a cobbler princess. In that deep place in her soul that she was still connected to, she felt a stirring remarkably like Cedric's darkly amused laughter.

Sofia brought the raft as close as she could to the barrier, before the sheer malevolence pushed the simple wooden craft backward. Fila stared across the gap, trying to see Mondar's face. And just as Sofia had hoped, the deep love and need that Mondar and Fila shared after so many years kept apart flared like the strongest magic.

Where Fila and Mondar looked longingly at each other across the barrier, the barrier reacted. It grew clearer and clearer, thinner and thinner, as though the heat of their gaze was melting the evil standing between them.

But a few feet away, the barrier swirled darker and darker with black anger that Sofia watched with apprehension. With an audible growl of gleeful rage, the barrier fought back, the hole that the lovers had made growing smaller once again. Sofia took out her wand and prepared to fight.

Sofia filled her heart with love. Love of her friends. Her family. Her country. And for her sorcerer. And with that strength buoying her up, she aimed her wand and the barrier and prepared to fight anger with love.

"Figere amorum!"

A stream of energy, the red and gold fire that made up her very being, emerged from her wand and struck the barrer just above where Fila and Mondar were riveted by each other's presence. The barrier shrank back, retreating like darkness flees the light. Fila and Mondar both cried out, reaching toward each other as the barrier fell between them.

Sofia gave a glad shout of triumph, but it was too soon to celebrate. With a vicious crack like thunder, the barrier shuddered as the dark rage that was all that was left of Vitki flowed back along the stream of her power, trying to eat into the heart of her. She pushed back, holding him at bay with all her strength, but the world around her seemed frozen, waiting for the outcome of this battle. Beads of sweat stood out on her brow as she desperately threw her power, her love, her very life force against the dark hate, the possession and desire and rage that bombarded her.

She called out, though she knew it was pointless. She screamed wordlessly, wanting help, wanting someone to save her though she knew there was only her in the middle of the vast ocean. But her Amulet knew differently. In her heart of hearts she had asked, and when the bearer was deserving, the Amulet offered aide.

The rose glow of the Amulet grew brighter and brighter, and Sofias heart leapt, hoping that one of the princesses could offer help – but she had no idea of their advice could help her now. But it was not a princess at all. The light flickered from brilliant pink and rose to vibrant green and blue and purple, a distinctive set of colors that Sofia knew well since she saw them often in her dreams.

Cedric the Royal Sorcerer appeared, manifesting beside her on the wobbling raft she'd made. He wasn't flesh and bone, but light so dense and thick that he appeared solid, the dark silver tattoos across his chest and arms glittering with magical power and his eyes dark amber and burning with intelligence. Sofia smiled, her heart soaring and her power sending the dark stream of energy that was reaching toward her farther back toward the barrier that had birthed it.

Cedric looked extremely confused and adorably befuddled, as though he'd just woken up out of a dream. But he came to his sense quickly, glancing between the two ghosts stretching to touch each other, the virulent black energy swirling toward Sofia, and his favorite troublesome princess.

"Ok you impossible woman, what trouble have you gotten yourself into now!"

Sofia breathed heavily, trying to push back against a force that hungered to suck you dry. She gritted out between clenched teeth, "Evil magician's ghost. Kept those two apart. Have to defeat him!"

Cedric frowned. He reached into his robes for a wand, but found nothing because he was only wearing his sleep pants. He sighed in frustration. "Couldn't you call my astral projection to you when I was daydreaming and fully dressed instead of in the middle of the night?"

Her eyes trailed over him from bare feet to tossled gray and black hair. "Not sorry!" Sofia quipped and stuck her tongue out.

Cedric laughed darkly. "You are so wicked when I am dreaming."

"Not dreaming!" Sofia cried out, pain flooding her with a particularly vicious push by Vitki's ghost. The stream of red and gold was almost back to her wand, and neither Cedric or Sofia wanted to see it touch her want. Sofia pushed back hard, reaching into the very depths of her magic and thrust herself forward, pushing Vitki back into the barrier and made it shake violently.

In that moment, Fila and Mondar, who had completely ignored the arrival of Cedric or Sofia's desperate battle, had stretched themselves out across the water, until their hands met and clasped together. The burst of energy from that connection rippled outward, causing great chunks of the barrier to tear or shrivel like paper begin set to flame.

What remained grew darker, more sinister, swirling with an oozing dark that seemed to suck in the light from the brighting sky. Dawn was coming, and Vitki seemed to know that his time was almost up.

Sofia felt the pressure against her magic let up and she breathed a sigh of relief, exhaustion hitting her hard. But she cried out in horror as she saw the remains of the barrier close in on Mondar and Fila, flooding toward their clasped hands as though it meant to sever them completely and absorb the remains.

Sofia pushed her magic toward them, trying to will her magic into an opposing barrier to protect the ghosts she was trying to help. Her body erupted with red and gold flames, causing Cedric to suck in a breath of surprise through clenched teeth. The flames soared out to surround and protect Fila and Mondar, but the black kept coming. When the black magic met her own fiery red she screamed, pain flooding her body. Cedric let out his own undignified squeak of pain, then took action.

He wrapped his arms around her, placing his hands over hers, his chest to her back, surrounding her. Sofia gasped, this time in pleasure. Wherever his body touched hers, where his flames of green and purple touched her own magic fire, they burned together, white hot.

They both moaned, his voice low and hot in her ear. She pushed back against him, wanting to become part of him, wanting this to be real. He bent to whisper darkly, "Do you feel that from your enemy? Darkness. Possessive desire for something he can't have. Lust and destruction. That's just like me, little girl. You think you want me, but how could you want that? You keep offering yourself to me, and someday I'll take it, and I'll never let you go." He cut off sharply, his elbows pulling her tight into his body, until she was tingling all over from the heat of their combined magic.

"I don't want you to let me go. And I want you to possess me, to want me. It's not evil if I want you to possess me, and I plan on possessing you right back. You're mine, sorcerer! I love you!" Her power flared out in determination, and Cedric gasped in pleasure as her magic ran through him, pushing out in a gush of flame toward the remains of Vitki's barrier. Cedric pushed his own out to follow hers, and the white rush of pure magic burned the black ooze of hatred wherever it touched. They burned together, bright and hot, and as the sun rose over the horizon into a clear autumn sky, the last whisps of Vitki's ghost swirled away into Hell.

Sofia and Cedric dropped her wand arm, but he didn't remove his arms from around her. He pressed his long nose into her neck and inhaled her scent, thanking the gods for this brilliant dream of her. She relaxed in his arms, grateful that he was there, magically, impossibly there, to hold her up when she felt like she was about to collapse.

They watched together as Mondar stepped lightly onto the raft, his own ghostly ship disappearing in the dawn's light. Sofia used the last remains of her power to push the raft back to shore, and all four passengers stepped on to the pebbled beach. Mondar and Fila had eyes only for each other, as did Cedric and Sofia. Sofia turned into his chest, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face into the symbols on his chest, pressing a light kiss to the mark that looked like her amulet emblazoned in dark silver over his heart.

"I love you, you insane woman." He muttered at her, and she stared up at him, blue eyes wide and happy. Cedric seemed to realize what he had said and grew red as a beet, huffing with sudden terror until he smiled a mad smile. "Dreaming! I'm dreaming! I can tell you anything I want when I'm dreaming. That I love you. That I want to lock you in with me in my tower and make love to you until neither of us can walk straight. That my magic began going haywire when I was thirteen and our coach passed a cottage that I later found out was likely your family's when you were a baby, and that I've apparently been trying to link your magic to mine for your entire life. I told you I was an evil man, Princess."

Sofia looked up at him, her smile growing wider and wider with every word he spoke. "We're not dreaming, Cedric. And you just told me we've been fated to be together my whole life? That's not evil, that's true love, my silly sorceror." Her smile turned wicked. "And when I get back to Enchancia, my love, I fully plan on locking myself in your tower and demanding you follow through with those 'evil' plans for me."

Cedric looked down at her, his mouth wide open and eyes blinking in shock. "Well, it's my dream, and that's just what you would say, isn't it?"

She grinned up at him, "Is it? How interesting."

Fila and Mondar coughed. Sofia and Cedric turned to look at them. The dawn light wasn't kind, and the grey green light that made up their forms was fading, disappearing into the dawn of the night after Samhain.

Fila spoke, her voice filled with happiness. "Thank you so much, Sofia, and to your man as well. I'm happy you too have a love as well, so you can understand our joy!"

"Yes!" Boomed Mondar, "Thank you Princess Mermaid. Your magic was so much more powerful than Vitki's evil. Thank you for helping us. Is there anything we can do to thank you?"

Sofia hugged Cedric to her and smile. "Just be happy, you two. Let your happiness shine out and fill this place up with love!"

Fila and Mondar smiled, then turned to each other and kissed passionately. That kiss was filled with magic. So much magic that both Sofia and Cedric had to take a step back. Fila and Mondar grew and grew, their green light turning warm and golden, filling up with the light and strength of the dawn itself. They merged together, Fila and Mondar disappearing into a shower of sunny sparkles. Like fireworks, the light burst over the island, and what was a grey and barren land suddenly glowed with magic and life.

Sofia and Cedric watched dumbfounded as golden spots of light swirled out over the island. The volcano smoking out a cloud of noxious steam quitted, and a water began to cascade down the mountain, running out into a wide river into the sea near their feet. They backed away, up the pebbled dunes, and watched as the sparse trees became a lush forest, and the dried and scraggly grass became fertile grasslands dotted with bright wildflowers. Sofia finally lost her battle and sat on the ground, Cedric collapsing with her to stare out at the island swelling with life into a vertitable paradise around them. They never let go of each other, holding each other as they witnessed a miracle of magic, of love that had grown for a thousand years let loose to thrive.

They watched birds circle in the sky and sing sweetly, and Sofia pressed a kiss to Cedric's cheek. "It's beautiful here. I'm not sure I ever would want to leave, if you were here with me."

Cedric shrugged. "This is yours, Sofia. If it is real, which I doubt mind you, then this island, this paradise is yours. Your own kingdom. You conquered it, by right of battle with that thing."

"It's ours then. I couldn't have done it without your help. Our own island. Filamondria." she nodded her head with that decisive Sofia flare.

"Filamondria. That's a mouthful, but it does have a nice ring to it."

Sofia smiled up at him. "It would be a nice place for a honeymoon, wouldn't it?"

Cedric turned red and stammering once again. "I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming so yes, yes it would be lovely." He picked up her wand and pointed it at a stretch of lush grass at the egde of the beach, and a canvas pavilion appeared, lavender with the white scroll symbols that Sofia had once worn on the dresses of her youth when she was first a princess. And inside the pavilion was a beautiful bower, with a mattress that was beyond inviting. Cedric picked Sofia up in his arms, which was really quite a feat for what should have been a magical projection, and strode toward the bower, laying Sofia in the wide bed with infinite care. She pulled him down beside her, and he curled around her body.

She flinched slightly, another attack of cramps happening despite all the other demands of her body for food and sleep. Cedric moaned in her ear, clutching at his own stomach. "Damn you woman, is this why my stomach hurts every month now?"

Sofia laughed darkly. "I ran out of your pain potion, and you, my love, are the best potion maker in all the kingdoms I've visited. But what about this?" She held up his right hand, and then showed him her own, sporting identical slashes across the palm. "Please be more careful when cutting up potion ingredients. Remember to spend some of that magic healing youself, or I'll feel it too."

Cedric looked down at her, stunned speechless. "We really are sharing our magic, aren't we? Even across all these miles?"

Sofia nodded, smiling wearily. She lifted her head and pressed her lips against his, and they shared their first true kiss, warm and tired and so very, very sweet. They fell asleep with smiles on their faces, their arms around each other.

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Cedric was gone when Sofia awoke. The sun was high in the sky, and it was a truly beautiful day on the truly names isle of Filamondria. She sat up in her bower with a sense of wonder that it had been real. There wouldn't be this beautiful island, much less this tent and soft bed, if all the events of the past night hadn't been stunningly real. Including the fact that the man she loved returned her feelings in full measure. Even if he couldn't admit it in real life when he didn't think he was dreaming.

"Princess! Ahoy! Princess Sofia! Is that you?"

Sofia heard a voice call off in the distance, and she stepped out of the pavilion and looked out to sea. And there off the shore was her ship! Captain Bell waved enthusiastically from a rowboat filled with sailors, and they were surrounded by dozens of sea creatures, seals and dolphins and even the occasional shark – the remains of her little navy from last night. They must have brought her ship here.

"It's me, Captain Bell," she shouted. "Welcome to Filamondria!"

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Later that day, the slash across her palm was suddenly healed, and Sofia wondered just how much of last night Cedric had put down to a dream. A few weeks later in Cordoba, a package arrived from home, containing close to a year's supply of Cedrics best woman's pain potion. Sofia knew then that some part of Cedric accepted that what had happened between them was far more than any dream.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and kept up my energy for writing lately! Also some of you offer really amazing suggestions for flushing out the world a bit. Thank you so much!

And sorry, no smut yet! Lots of talking and worrying and whatnot. I do promise to get Part II of this scene done soon!

As always, I am a terrible proofreader of my own work, and any mistakes drive me nuts. Please let me know if you see something I should fix, and I will do so ASAP and be very grateful!

Part One

Sofia of Enchancia, newly made Duchess of Filamondria just a half year prior, opened the door to her guest chambers and stepped into her room and the attentions of her devoted servant Violet. Violet set about getting Sofia out of her ballgown and dancing slippers, then into a thin gown and robe made for Avalorian summers. Sofia just stood, for once content to be moved about as a doll when she was so tired and listless. Instead she concentrated on staring out the window on to her balcony toward the starry night sky, focusing on keeping herself under control and not giving into the sense of panic that prickled along her spine, and had done so for the past several days.

"Princess, you will be tryin' to get some sleep as soon as possible, aye? Ya need to rest for the trip all the way to Freezenberg, and the ship leaves on the tide tomorrow!" Violet chirped brightly, full of boundless energy even after a day spent packing and preparing to leave Avalor. Sofia nodded, hoping her movements looked natural and not weighed down with worry. Violet had taken her responsibilities of caretaker to heart, and she would be ruthless in nagging Sofia until she confessed what was bothering her. And Sofia really didn't have a good answer.

Hopefully, exhaustion would be a good enough excuse for Violet. It had been a long day of goodbyes and a longer night of dancing in the Avalorian style, and Sofia desperately hoped that sleep would come easily tonight. Violet puttered around the room, sorting through the trunks, leaving Sofia to her thoughts as she sat carefully in a chair by the window, taking advantage of the sea breeze.

Sofia sighed softly, trying to relax her muscles, if not her magic, and hoping that would relax her mind somewhat. Thoughts whirled as she worried about a thousand normal things. Politics and etiquette and trade and building codes. And Cedric. Always there at the edges of her thoughts, a comfort and a torment all in one. Something was wrong, something about him. But she had no idea what or why or if she was just so homesick she was making herself go mad. She took a deep breath, trying to reflect.

Avalor had been better than most of her state visits. Most of the time she went to an endless series of tea parties and archery tournaments and Flying Derby or Flying carpet races. She avoided the hunting at all costs. Her ideas about animal rights and the rights of magical beings had grown slowly but surely over the years, and she tried to sneak in her thoughts on the matter into normal banal conversations on the weather or fashion or juicy court gossip. She took note of who was sympathic and who needed to be convinced. In the future, she would do more. She hoped someday to improve the lot of the non-humans of all the realms, but she knew she had to start small.

Avalor was the first court in which she felt she could openly discuss her ideas, and Queen Elena, Prince Consort Mateo and especially Princess Isabel were very enthusiastic about her idea of a Treaty of Rights for Magical Beings. The animal rights might take a bit longer to sell to a wider crowd, but given the strength of her magic, Sofia thought she might have quite a few decades to wrangle all the parties in place. Diplomacy was at times immensely dull and taxing to her patience, but was at times exciting and very rewarding.

She stood up, wandering over to one of the open trunks lining the walls of her spacious bedchamber while Violet was busy wrapping up her last ballgown. She had no doubt Violet had done an amazing job with her packing, but looking over her trunks gave Sofia something to do. Sofia whistled to herself, trying to find a distraction from the knot of worry in her chest. She felt...itchy. Itchy and prickly. Unable to sleep well. Uninterested in eating. Her mind kept traveling across the sea and into a familiar tower, almost her second home.

She stood looking into the trunk in front of her, contemplating the gifts she'd acquired for family and friends, most pleased with the outcome of her months-long mission to Avalor. Queen Elena had been most helpful and forthcoming, especially in regards to her scandalous yet successful marriage to her Court Sorcerer, Mateo. Queen Elena was currently pregnant with her second child, and she and Mateo seemed to rule together with cooperation and respect. She had established a precedent, and Sofia had every intension of citing that precedent gleefully when and if she ever found herself at odds with her parents about her choice for a life's partner.

Thoughts of that partner were stroking seductively at the edges of her mind, and she was trying not to succumb to their call, knowing what the results would be. The combination of worry for him and arousal at her imagings of him was why she'd been staring into space most of the day. She bit her lip. Hard. It didn't help. She fell into memory of the dumbstruck yet wistful look on his silly, wonderful face as she flew away in her carriage when she left on her Tour. She'd kissed him that day, pining him to his workbench and pressing her lips against his before dashing away to leave. She hoped that with time he would start to think of her not as a child and his apprentice, but as a woman to share his life, his magic. His woman.

"Sofia? Sofia? Are you listening?"

Violet had had to speak quite loudly before Sofia, Princess of Enchancia, managed to hear her. "Oh, Violet! I'm so sorry. Woolgathering again. What were you saying?"

Violet looked at her, concern evident in her eyes. She had been Sofia's maid and friend for more than a decade. Sofia had helped her budding romance with a Coronan footman blossom, and now Liam was a member of Sofia's own entourage, and Violet was slightly rounded with pregnancy. But her stern stare had lost nothing of its effectiveness in discombobulating Sofia. "I'm afraid that I'll need to go out first thing in the mornin', Princess. We'lll be needin' an additional trunk, what with all the purchases you've made for your family and friends, and all those books of yours. Will you be well on your own to prepare?"

Sofia breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, alone. That was precisely what she needed. "Yes Violet, I shall be able to rise and prepare for the journey on my own. I'll sleep soon, I promise. I know I need it. You know that I've not been sleeping well. Too homesick." Well, that was one way to explain her deep need to go home. Now.

Violet sighed in sympathy. "Yes, I as well miss. I can't wait to show Enchancia to my Liam. Only one more visit left, and we'll be at home again!"

Sofia restrained a groan. Heading to Freezenburg seemed overkill – how many times had she visited there with Amber as a child? She could go there any week, and she doubted Hildegard would give more than superficial lip service to her concerns for magical creatures, although maybe Astrid would. No – no plotting. No weighing options, no tea party maneuvers, no calculation. She didn't want to be Duchess Sofia, founder of the newest island protectorate in the known world and budding political star. She just wanted to be Sofia and miss her family and friends and care about people and creatures. She wanted to sleep. But her mind twirled in a frantic waltz, if it wasn't politics that was her partner, it was thoughts of her sorcerer, and that wasn't really restful either. She needed time to herself to purge these thoughts and the pent up magic that accompanied them.

"Go ahead Violet. I trust you to choose precisely what we shall need for our journey."

Violet smiled, and swept out of the room, efficient as ever. Sofia collapsed to a chair again, and breathed in deep. As she exhaled, she let go.

Power flared in her hands, twining up her arms, red and gold and pink and orange, and she flinched in pain, in need. Every time she thought of him lately, this was the result. The Amulet pulsed, sending out a cooling wave and the fire receded petulantly into her skin. This was insane. It couldn't go on much longer.

Memories swamped her, so vivid they seemed like they's happened yesterday. The flames had started in truth when she'd seen him in the flesh six months ago, when she'd met her family and shown them the beauties of Filamondria. It had been wonderful to hug her mother and father and siblings, and to see the awe and pride in their eyes over this amazing addition to Enchancia territories. They had explored the mountains and the river and the dense forest and verdant plain. Sofia had lost track of the new birds and butterflies she'd never seen before. It had been a wonderful respite before they returned to business. Plans were made to welcome settlers, to start farming and fishing in the now abundant seas surrounding the island. And Dad had surprised her by making her a Duchess in her own right, giving her the taxes and rule of Filamondria once she had reached the age of twenty one. It was a princely dowry, or security and vocation if she chose never to marry at all.

But with her family came one other much beloved visitor to her – their – island. Cedric the Sensational had stepped out of the flying coach and stared around himself as though he was seeing a ghost. He hadn't quite believed that what had happened that Samhain was real, that was evident. Then his eyes had met Sofia's, and she'd seen the love and desire flash through him, plain as day before he covered everything up in his usual cynical mask.

"It's far too humid here. My potions will take twice as long to brew in this weather. And yes, it is good to see you, Princess Sofia."

She had not thrown herself at him in the same kind of hug she'd given her family. But she had taken one of his hands in both of hers and felt the fire flare hot between them wherever skin touched. He'd restrained himself from flinching and she'd held tight so as not to let him. They reached a truce of sorts.

He'd come with the family on every excursion, found countless medicinal plants and interesting minerals, and been adorably excited often enough that Sofia was filled with joy just watching him and his love of knowledge and magic. He'd watched her too, not talking, just watching, as though drinking in the sight of her.

It was that last night when she'd taken a walk on the beach, away from the pavilions of their camp site, that he'd found her in the moonlight.

"Hello, Sofia."

His voice was deep, and slightly rougher than normal. It had made her shiver, and not in fear. He was standing in the shadow of a rocky cliff that edged the beach, and she could barely make out his shape, just the bright spot of the light gray in his hair. She had stepped closer. "Hello, Cedric. It's good to drop all the titles. After the last year I am thoroughly sick of all the titles."

She saw his smile, a flash of reflected moonlight in the shadows.

"Yet you went and got yourself a new one, Duchess." The way he said the word made it sound like an endearment, a seduction. She wrapped her arms around herself, not to protect herself from the chill night breeze, but to cover her peaked nipples, despite the thickness of her robe. He continued wryly, "You found this paradise fair and square. You could have set yourself up as Queen Sofia the First. Why hand it to your stepfather, Duchess?"

She had grinned back at him. "Because I didn't have the money for a navy to defend it, my Duke."

He'd choked for a moment, and the sound turned to laughter. "You were always delightfully devious, if far too kind hearted. I see that the world of politics has rubbed off on you." He coughed. "Duke? Really...I'm not, I mean...we're not..."

She'd taken another step, passing into the shadow with him. "Not yet, no. But you did help me conquer the island. It's as much yours as it is mine. But you might have to marry me to claim the title, Duke Cedric."

He was the one that had taken that last step, and swept her into his arms. His kiss was fiery and hot, as though all the passion of weeks – nay, months, had boiled over into that one act. Her knees grew weak, and flames seemed to burn her from within, her blood hot and thick and her core tight and heavy with want. He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and she whimpered, her nails scratching at his back where her arms had wrapped around him, pulling him to her. She felt his hardness pressed against her stomach and she wiggled her hips back and forth, making him groan. Part of her wanted him to set her down on a conveniently sized boulder and spread her legs and have her, just to stop the endless waiting and wondering.

He ripped away from her just far enough to pant out, "Sofia, Titania's Tits, Sofia we have to stop, the magic, the flames..."

She looked down then, and finally noticed that the two of them were glowing, every color from red to purple flowing together and then merging at the edges into a pure, brilliant white. It was beautiful.

"If we don't stop, we will bond completely, and then you'll be stuck with me." He took a step back, trying and failing to pull out of her arms because she just followed him, pressing her body against his as he backed roughly into the cliff face.

"And what is so terrible about that?"

"Well, besides the fact that we will probably be driven to have unrestrained sex for hours and your family will likely walk in on us, you will be tied to a bumbling fool of a sorcerer who tried and failed to take over your father's kingdom many times, tried to steal your amulet more times than there are stars in the sky, and who is far too old for you."

She still blushed, no matter how many erotic books and spell manuals she'd read and lurid images and sculptures she'd seen, the thought of her family finding them was enough to put a damper on her ardor. "I thought we had gotten past this the last time we were here. I love you, you love me, we were possibly fated to be together. I don't understand what is so terribly wrong with us?"

He squinted down at her in the darkness. "What part of, 'I tried to steal your Amulet' did you not understand?"

"Oh pish! Of course you tried to take my Amulet. You think I didn't figure that out? I spent weeks when I was thirteen having an existential crisis about all the times you'd probably attempted to do bad things and I was too naive to notice or believe you capable of ill intent. But when I realized that you never really went through with anything truly evil, and that you were at your best when you were working for good, that you simply had to work through some issues and would come out stronger for the test. I mean, when was the last time you tried to take over the kingdom?"

Silence reigned. "I can't remember," Cedric whispered.

"I can. It was ten years ago. And you ended up on the right side of things then, didn't you? And when was the last time you tried to steal my amulet?"

He kissed her again instead of answering, and she thought that was settled, but when he pulled back again, he looked sad. "Nevertheless, if our magicks merge, I have no idea what will happen. It's so rare, there's no records of it. I don't know if I will swamp you with my power, or you'll swamp me. Will our minds stay intact, sane? Will our magic burn us up entirely?"

She placed a finger to his lips. "Cedric, you worry too much. Does it feel like a bad thing?"

"No! It's too easy. And everything good in my life has taken work. It doesn't come naturally. Evil and selfishness come naturally. Don't blame me if I worry that the magic that already binds us is influencing you, making you think you love me, making you give me everything I want." He yanked himself out of her arms, scraping roughly along the cliff and backing away from her, his skin covered in green and purple fire. "I love you too much to want to control you like that. You deserve to find a man who you can love without that taint."

"Who is to say I'm not controlling you?" she cried out, stamping her foot in the pebbles of the beach, her own red and gold flaring bright enough to rival the moon.

He'd whispered, barely audible over the sound of the surf, "Because I loved you long before that night you found me in the binding circle."

He'd turned and ran, and she'd stood there and burned, angry and sad. He didn't let her answer that she'd loved him too. She'd dreamed of his kiss, his touch, the comfort of his presence as they worked together, how she wanted to see him the first thing when she woke in the morning and the last thing when she went to sleep. She'd dreamed it from the time she was sixteen.

Sofia sighed, the wash of memory almost painful. How long could this go on? How long would he fight what she could feel in her soul was right? Did he think she would forget about him, replace him, when she knew that he wanted her, loved her? He had said that he didn't want to bind her magic with his own. Was that enough for him to never take the risk of being with her?

She'd tried to find another man, briefly, thinking she could use the experience to prove to Cedric that she knew her own mind, that she would choose him. But the touch of any other man who looked at her with desire was revolting, almost painful. Instead of him fading in her mind as she flew from nation to nation, learning of customs and trade routes and helping people where she could, he grew more vivid, more present in her mind's eye. Her imagination had taken flight from those few shared kisses and all too often she was sleepless, tossing and turning at the thought of his kiss, his touch, unable to rest until she had touched herself, imagining it was his long fingers bringing her pleasure. And even if she fell asleep without indulging in such naughty behavior, her dreams were no better, full of skin and sighs and the constant driving feeling of want that was slowly driving her mad, then waking up to bright light flaring like a Wassalia blaze around her body, like she was made of fire. The Amulet had to rescue her, time and again, before she was made mad with wanting and unrestrained magic.

She rocked back and forth in her chair, her magic flaming up once around her, making her burn and _want_. It was on the edge of pain, and Sofia was worried what would happen when it crossed into constant pain, when not even the amulet could hide it anymore.

"Princesa? Princesa, you have important visitors." Sofia started at the sound of an Avalorian maid's low voice at the door. There was no time to stop the flames. The doors opened, revealing two very familiar, very unexpected people.

Winifred the Wise and Duchess Mathilda stepped through the door, looking tired and worried. As they caught sight of Sofia, her skin lit up with red and gold flames, they gasped in unison.

"Oh dear, she's almost just as affected! Thank goodness we came when we did or they'd both be beyond help." Tilly bustled across the room, pressing a hand to Sofia's forehead.

Miss Winifred looked to be almost in tears. "Oh, my dear sweet girl. Here I thought I'd have to try and convince you into saving my boy, and instead I am doing you both a favor. What a matchmaker I am. My sweet Ceddy, married to a Princess – well a Duchess then." she glanced at Tilly, "Nothing wrong with being a Duchess mind you." Winifred turned and shooed the wide-eyed maid out of the room, closed the door, then pulled out her wand and sealed it shut. "Don't want to be bothered now, do we?"

Sofia finally realized that she was not having a very strange dream, and hence found her voice. "Miss Winifred! Aunt Tilly, what are you doing here?"

Tilly made tsking noises. "You have a fever, Sofia. How long have you been having controlled flares?"

Sofia blinked, the her brow furrowed. "The Amulet helps, but a few months now. It doesn't last too long. I really have a fever?" She raised a hand to her own forehead, and her vision was filled with the red and gold fire than blazed around her hands – the heat of them magical rather than physical, otherwise she would have feared for her eyebrows.

Winifred puttered around the room and poked in the various open trunks with a smile on her face as she commented, "Now Prin...Duchess Mathilda, the girl will be just fine as soon as we get her to Cedric. I can't believe I didn't think of who his match would be until now! Oh, the grandchildren will be so beautiful and talented!"

Sofia looked back and forth between her frowning aunt and Cedric's scheming but sweet mother. "Aunt Tilly, why do you need to take me to Cedric? Is something wrong with him?"

Her heart suddenly pounded, and her thoughts moved a mile a moment. She'd felt his nagging sense of distress for some time. She knew he was unhappy – that he was tired. She had selfishly thought that he would realize in his unhappiness that he needed her, that when she returned he might be ready to truly listen to her, that she knew what she wanted. But the last few days had been filled with so many restless dreams and constant aching longing, not to mention the intensity of her flares was increasing.

Tilly sighed, rolling her eyes a bit in Winifred's direction as that good lady bent over to examine a particular Satu silk robe that Sofia had intended as a gift for her mother. "Cedric disappeared into his tower five days ago, and when no one saw him for two days, and meals set at his door went uneaten and strange lights were scene coming from the windows and someone could hear Cedric's raven squawking as though he was screaming for help. Rolland sent for Goodwyn and Winifred to check on him. They could get past the wards he'd set on the door. I happened to be there for a visit, and Winifred came to get me when she saw the state Cedric was in. I had no idea he was capable of that degree of magic. That he's kept those flares under control for so much of his life is a remarkable feat of discipline."

"That's what I always told Goodwyn, but oh no, he always said it was his binding spells and not my boy's inner strength. Humph." Winifred glided across the floor to stand next to Sofia and pass a hand through the red fire on her arm. "You, my dear, have a remarkable level of magic as well. If it wasn't for that Amulet of yours, you'd have burned up long ago."

"What? What do you mean?" Sofia thought she'd understood magic, but there was nothing like this in all the books she'd read. "What do you mean, burn up? And why could I never find anything about these flares in any books – I checked in so many Royal Libraries!"

Tilly laughed. "Wizards and witches and sorcerers don't like to put all there secrets in libraries Sofia. Especially not when it is something powerful and rare. It's all family secrets and word of mouth. In all my travels I'd only see one person have magical flares, and now I've seen two more in a matter of days! That both you and Cedric should be so gifted, and you from almost out of the blue – it is extraordinary."

"But what are they? The flares?"

"You and Cedric have certain kinds of magical talents – I know that Cedric excels at movement spells, conjuring and potion making – when he can concentrate. You have shown skills in healing, translation and transformation."

"But isn't that just the amulet?"

"The amulet simply brings forth the potential that is already there Sofia, didn't you realize that?"

Sofia looked down at her chest, and Tilly smiled softly at the jewel that had once been hers to bear. "I was a Story Keeper, and the bearer of the amulet, but I have never had the finesse with the amulet's magical gifts that you have, nor the understanding of it to be able to free poor Queen Elena. You are an extraordinary young woman, Duchess Sofia."

Sofia could feel herself blush, and the confounded flames rose up brighter around her cheeks. She giggled in response, almost to the point of hysteria. What was happening? "Ok, so I have one set of magic skills, and I have a certain set of colors to my flares, and Cedric has other dominant skills, so he has other colors?"

"Or you are good and he is evil, it could be that!" Winifred cackled and Tilly blew a lock of her disheveled brown hair out of her face in irritation.

"You are very quick, Sofia. I knew you would understand. Cedric's magic is strong enough that it is almost too much for his physical self. Yours is the same. So your magic flares and seeks a partner. When we found Cedric, he was lying on the floor of his bedroom, his flares filling the room. Working together we managed to get another level of binding on him, but he's delirious and kept saying your name. We aren't sure how long he can last until..."

"Let me help! We were partly bound just before I left Enchancia. It was an accident. Is all this my fault?" Sofia stood on suddenly shaky legs.

Tilly took hold of one of her arms to steady her, and Winifred came up and patted Sofia's other arm and spoke softly, "Cedric told me a bit of what happened, as he felt terribly guilty about it. I don't think you hurt him – in fact I think he would have collapsed years ago if it wasn't for the comfort he has always found in your presence. You've been his guiding light all these years, and I should be upset at you for leading my son astray from a proper path of manipulation and acquiring power, but I've seen how happy and content you make him, deary. But oh, did you know he's actually given magic shows for the village children! And then I found him feeding the animals in that little garden of yours at the castle. Really dear, you have to let him be a little dastardly sometimes!"

Sofia smiled, laughing softly, her heart light and warm in her chest at the thought of him feeding all the friends she'd left behind in the castle when she'd left for this confounded Tour. Tilly chuckled as well, "It's not all Sofia, Winifred. I remember at sixteen seeing a three year old Cedric floating bread out the kitchen windows of the castle with his first tiny wand and giving it to the ducks in the moat. He was adorable."

Winifred sniffed. "Goodwyn's influence, no doubt. But really, we need to leave soon. If we can find a way to rejuvenate the horses quickly, we can get back in the coach and get back to Cedric and let these two bond properly!"

Tilly looked conflicted. "It is still up to Sofia, Winifred. We are not sure of the consequences of binding. It's never been documented. I'm always one to pursue adventure and to understand the unknown, but this..."

Winifred stood taller, looking serious instead of celebratory. "Mathilda, I'm not sure either of them has much of a choice at this point. Their magic calls to one another, and it may either disappear completely or burn them to a crisp. I know that my Ceddy would be lost without his magic, and I certainly don't want him to die." She clutched at Sofia's arm, her nails digging in to the skin, "Cedric is in a magical sleep, and Goodwyn and my Cordelia are standing over him, trying to keep his magic contained. We have to get to him and put this right!" Sofia's flames grew bright enough to burn, making both Tilly and Winifred let her go with gasps of alarm.

Sofia looked back and forth between the two women, "How do I, what would I even..."

There was a great banging at the magically locked door, interrupting whatever words Sofia was trying to get out.

"Sofia? Sofia are you there? We were told that there were visitors, some kind of emergency!"

"Elena?" Sofia flew to the door, despite her shaky limbs, and yanked at the handle. It resisted, but a flare surged from her fingers and the lock broke off in her hand, the door swinging open. Queen Elena of Avalor stumbled in, stopped from tipping over in her ungainly state by her husband who was at her heels.

Elena laughed, a hand at her hip on her husband's hands where they held her upright. "Oh, I forgot how hard it is to dash around the castle on adventures at seven months pregnant!" Elena looked beautiful, glowing with health, her bright red silk night robe tied awkwardly over the swell of her baby.

"As if anything could stop you on a mission, my love." Mateo muttered with a roll of eyes and a smile that said he loved her for it. Sofia had known Mateo for a decade, and he had finally grown into those sorcerer's robes of his, even if he was wearing deep blue pajamas at the moment. He was slightly taller than Sofia, and his chest had finally filled in, giving him a presence and gravity that a Prince Consort needed. She'd gotten to know him very well during the six months they'd spent as co-apprentices under Cedric's tutelage years ago, and she'd known before he did how very much in love with Elena he was. Sofia was so very glad things had worked out.

Winifred and Tilly had actually stepped in front of Sofia, shielding her from the perceived threat, but when they'd seen it was Elena they both relaxed, at least in part.

"Why hello, Queen Elena, Prince Mateo. We haven't yet met, but I'm Duchess Mathilda of Enchancia, Sofia's aunt through marriage."

"Oh Mateo! My you've grown since you were last in Enchancia with my Ceddy. And two children! Wonderful! And Queen Elena, you are as ravishing as Mateo has told us!"

Elena and Mateo bowed their heads in acknowledgment, all the years of etiquette training kicking in with the ease of long practice that Sofia recognized. Elena responded for both of them, "Thank you, Duchess, Sorceress, I am pleased to meet both of you, but may I ask what brought you to Avalor, and at such an hour? Is there a problem?"

"Elena – look at Sofia!" Mateo gasped out.

And yes, another flare had encompassed Sofia, the flames leaping around her high enough to be visible despite her two self-appointed guardians blocking the Avalorian royals' view.

"Oh, I wondered if that was what was wrong." Elena looked worried. "I had a similar problem, years ago."

"You did!" Sofia, Winifred and Tilly all spoke simultaneously.

Winifred spoke first, "I didn't know you too were a sorceress! Mateo gave us not the slightest inkling!"

Tilly took over, "How did you survive the flares, Queen Elena? Do you still have to suppress them?"

Sofia was quiet, thoughtful, and quick. "You bonded, didn't you? You and Mateo bonded and that helped."

Both Elena and Mateo looked at each other with small sweet smiles and blushed. Mateo spoke for them both, confidence giving his voice power. "We did, although that was a bit of an accident. When Elena first started having flares, she didn't know how to use or control her magic. She isn't naturally a sorceress – but spending over forty years inside a magical object, she absorbed so much magic it was naturally a part of her. And eventually, without the Amulet surrounding her, the magic grew too much for her body to keep contained – especially when she began to use her sceptre as well."

"There must be something special about the magic artifacts of Avalor, something that can magnify but contain magic." Tilly pondered aloud.

"Yes, exactly!" Mateo enthused. He obviously had warmed to his subject. "The Empire of Maru sunk a tremendous amount of its wealth and resources toward the creation of potent magical object to protect and magnify magic. They studied magic in all its forms before the Empire fell, and there are manuscripts left from those times with methods to help control and contain magic gone out of control." He swallowed thickly. "When Elena was first affected, she was still very young, and we had no idea what the flares would do to her or how to help. I found a scroll from the time of the Maru with a method of physical...manipulation of magical energy meridians in the body that would help contain magical flares, especially if done by a compatible magic practitioner."

Elena laughed softly. "He found a guide to magical massage. It helped for a while. But eventually, my own flares started in response, and we got so close to each other that bonding was inevitable."

Mateo grinned at his wife, "Admit it, you found me irresistible."

Elena smiled back, "That I did!" She turned to Sofia, walking forward and taking her hands, despite the red fire surrounding them. "Do you have a compatible partner? Someone your magic reacts to?"

Sofia smiled. "I do. And now you've given me such hope! Even if he doesn't want to bond with me, perhaps I can help him anyway."

"Don't be silly, Sofia. My son adores you. He's loved you for years, and he thinks himself a lecher for it. He is lying if he says he doesn't want to bond with you."

Tilly nodded her agreement. "Cedric is stubborn, but you my dear are more so. If anyone can get him to do what is right for you both, it is you. You've had him wrapped around your finger since you were a child."

"Well then, how fast can we get back to Enchancia? How could you possibly take a flying horse all the way here?"

Tilly grinned, "Quite the accomplishment, isn't it! The first flying coach to make it all the way across the sea! I must admit it was your beautiful island that made it possible. We were able to change horses there, and it is a whiz bang of a fast little wagon, let me tell you."

Winifred sighed, "Tiny little thing, not at all comfortable, but I will endure anything for my Ceddy."

Elena spoke up, "We don't have a good selection of coach trained flying horses, Sofia, but we do have something even faster. Flying Jaquins!"

Sofia rubbed her hands together, suddenly filled with ore energy and determination then she'd felt in weeks, "Well then, what are we waiting for, let's get me a copy of that scroll and get airborne – I'll read it on the way home!"

Home! She was going home to Cedric. Her heart almost sang in happiness, and her magic flared bright enough to flood the room with pink and gold light. She felt just a bit dizzy, and had to sit down again. She better get there soon, or both of them were in deep trouble.


	4. Chapter 3 Part 2

A/n: Finally some relief from the UST! Here is Part 2 of this scenario. Pretty much PWP. Probably have lots of mistakes, I rush too much when writing smut. Please let me know what I need to fix!

Part II

Sofia took a deep breath, pulling the ties of her robe tighter. She was once again in the workroom she'd spent so much of her time in as a child and then as a teenager and true apprentice. It smelled of Cedric – herbs and vinegar and honey and just….him. It was simultaneously comforting and arousing, and she shifted from foot to foot, waiting nervously for everyone to be done below and for the chance to be alone with Cedric – to fix whatever madness she had begun for them both on that night almost two years ago.

Waiting was almost painful. She was full of energy - she almost vibrated with it, and it crackled over her skin in eager little flares. She should be beyond tired. Given that they'd been racing toward the dawn to chase the sun, it had been a bit less than a full day from the moment Aunt Tilly and Miss Winifred had burst into her room in Avalor. It had seemed longer. She'd fallen into an exhausted sleep the moment the Jaquin-pulled carriage had taken off after she'd waved goodbye to Elena and Mateo. Two hours later she'd woken up, disoriented, to see Aunt Tilly calmly working on her knitting while Miss Winifred snored softly beside her.

"Oh good, Sofia, you're awake. I'm glad we have this time to chat," she glanced over at Winifred, "Alone."

What followed was an embarrassing conversation about sex, in which Sofia had admitted to having studied a fair few erotic texts in order to impress Cedric with her commitment to knowledge, and to him. Relieved that Sofia would be an eager and knowledgeable, if not experienced, participant in any sexual activity that resulted from magical bonding, Tilly then went into excruciating detail with regards to methods of preventing pregnancy and thus delaying the need to marry, or even to tell King Roland, about the bond between Cedric and Sofia.

"You see, my dear, it will take time for Roland to fully warm up to the idea. He will get there, he usually makes the right decisions in the end, and he loves you and will want you to be happy. But more than that, you are a newly made Duchess, with new and valuable lands. A lot of diplomatic coups can be made if the idea that you are an eligible party is still on the table. Obviously, it would be impossible for you to marry anyone but Cedric, but that doesn't mean you can't use whatever advantages you can to solidify your position. Just wait a few years if you can."

Sofia had been uncomfortable with the idea of lying and delaying a marriage for the sake of politics, but the more she thought about it, the idea of sneaking around with Cedric was actually rather thrilling. She had so many fantasies of the two of them in illicit situations throughout Enchancia and beyond, it would be a shame to not be able to realize them. And she certainly understood the political advantages. It wasn't truly lying – for she was a terrible liar. It was just letting people believe what they wanted to believe. That she had been able to do blissfully well for years.

Then Aunt Tilly fell asleep, and Miss Winifred cracked open an eye. "Oh good, she's asleep. I need to talk to you about so many things, love! And I know you'll probably turn red with embarrassment, but there are things you need to know before you can help my Ceddy."

Sofia had an eerily similar conversation, managing with surprising ease to assure Winifred that she was not naive as to how sex happened, without having actually experienced the act. Winifred had heartily approved of her search for knowledge, bemoaning how so many girls were not suitably curious and were not taught even the basics! Then she'd started in on birth control.

"You know how much I've longed for more grandchildren before I get too old to make them flycakes and chase after them, but I'm not completely decrepit yet. Cedric still has a few good years and you are still very young. And let's not think about the difficulties that a new duchess will have in establishing control over that beautiful little island! No, you don't need children yet. Just have some fun with my boy. He deserves it!"

Sofia feared that she would be permanently scarlet, when they had finally come in to land at Filamondria. Her beautiful island – she was so happy to be back, even for just a little while. It was not quite fully dawn when they arrived, and the sky was a cerulean blue touched with the pink and orange of the coming sun. Her heart sang when they landed, as though it recognized that this land would one day be home.

She'd thanked the Jaquins profusely, and as the carriage was prepared with the rested flying horses, she'd then spent a few hectic moments with a sleep Ruby, her island steward, as she listed all of the ongoing projects and accomplishments of the colonists. The trolls had performed wonders carving homes in the rocky volcano cliffs to the east of the island, and the merpeople had a thriving community in a pretty little gulf on the west side at the outlet of the major river. Fields had been worked and planted, and animals had taken well to what pasture was available. With a shared hug of deep affection and thanks, Ruby had sent her off with an admonishment to finally, "Get your man!"

The rest of the trip was mostly in silence as Tilly and Winifred both slept, and Sofia poured over the scrolls that Mateo had magically copied for her. So still couldn't understand a word of the beautiful pictoral script of the ancient Maru, but the detailed pictures depicting massage strokes and directions and key energy points seemed mostly self explanatory. She did her best to stare at them and memorize them, but with each mile she'd grown more distracted, her magic pushing within her skin and she tried more and more to reign it in and keep her magic from inundating the carriage. The closer they got to Enchancia, to Cedric, her magic knew that its partner was close.

It was deep midnight when they had arrived with a muffled thump and no fanfare in a field behind the stables. No hugs from Mom or dramatic squeals from Amber. Instead, Tilly and Winifred alone had smuggled Sofia into the castle swathed in a heavy cloak and hood, and she could enjoy only the scents of the grass under her feet and then the crunch of pebbled paths in the garden before they were at the secret garden door of Cedric's Tower and then up the stairs.

The Tower fairly buzzed with magic, as though the stones themselves were getting ready to fly apart. Wormwood had squawked at her raucously, "I blame you, Princess, for this horrid mess! You have been gone far too long. Fix it. Fix it this instant!"

"I plan on it. Now shush! Go out and fly about and bother some owls!" She shooed him away, not wanting him anywhere near for what she was about to have to do. Tilly and Winifred stared at her, perplexed as ever by her behavior with animals, as Cordelia came up to the workroom from Cedric's hidden apartments beneath.

"Thank the Goddess and all her lovers you are here, finally! I thought I would never get a break. My brother is a very difficult man to keep in a magically induced coma, stubborn fool that he is!"

"Cordelia! Be nice to your brother. He is very very ill."

"He's also damn lucky to have found someone willing to bond with him. Goddess knows how powerful he is going to be after all this and he'll hold it over my head for the next century. I'm going home!" She stomped her foot, her wilted but still incredibly colorful skirts swirling around her ankles, and the next moment she was gone in a puff of green smoke. Sofia smiled softly. She knew Cordelia loved her brother, and the exhaustion that had been written on her face showed how much.

"Stay here dear." Tilly patted Sofia's arm, then looked her up and down. "You might want to try and freshen up a bit. It's likely to be a long night for you, after a very long day. We'll be up soon and then you can see him."

Tilly and Winifred went down the stairs to Cedric's bedroom, and Sofia was left alone with her thoughts. Plucking her wand from the sleeve of her simple blue traveling dress she'd donned back in Avalor, she whispered a series of spells that cleaned her skin and her hair, then transformed her chemise and bloomers into a night dress, the traveling dress into a blue robe, and her shoes into slippers. One more spell to make certain that she was not fertile, and she set her wand on the old scared worktable, home of a thousand potion mistakes and even more successes, and so many memories. And then she paced, pulled on the ties of her robes and fiddled with her Amulet, and waited.

She started like a scared rabbit when the door finally opened below and footsteps started up the stairs. A very tired Goodwyn the Great, his wife Winifred, and Aunt Tilly all looked worriedly at Sofia.

Goodwyn spoke, concern thick in his voice. "I've taken away the heavy suppression spells on his consciousness. He should be awake soon, and the flares will hit hard. Are you certain you are willing to do this, my dear. You...you know..."

"I love Cedric, Mr. Goodwyn. I've loved him for a long time, and I could not imagine anyone I would rather be bonded to in any way." Then she silently asked the amulet to cease its aid, and let a flare blossom out from her skin, showing them all how much she'd been suppressing of her own predicament.

"Go, go now! My goodness child, hurry." Winifred pointed down the staircase, and Sofia scampered down the steps, filled with nervous energy and the simple joy of getting to see Cedric for the first time in over six months.

She closed the door behind her with a thud, and the sudden silence of being alone with him seemed to buzz in her ears. No, it wasn't silence, it was power. Sofia bit her lip hard, her body tingling with the power that was slowly starting to ooze from every pore, rose and pink and scarlet crackles of her very life force, her magic made manifest. She gazed at the figure lying on the high four poster bed. He was tall and skinny, his nose was too long and his hair was strangely two colors and a bit too long for fashion. He was clumsy and lacked confidence, but to her he was beautiful.

His skin, that which was uncovered by the cream robe, was pale, almost blue white from the deep blue and green energy which sparkled along his skin, dancing in desperate, angry patterns and flaring out toward her, as though pulling her forward. She fiddled again with the ties of her robe, still desperately nervous, worried that somehow Cedric was going to hate her, that she would ruin everything between them, that she was about to lose her very best friend.

But he needed her.

He opened his eyes, eyes which glowed with greenish blue fire. And he whispered softly, achingly - "Sofia…"

"I'm here Cedric. I'm here."

He whimpered softly and closed his eyes, a tear trailing down his cheek. "No, you can't be. You are safe. Far from me and safe."

Sofia worried at her lip again, filled with sudden decision, and pulled at the tie of her robe, letting it drop to the floor and leaving her in nothing but her conjured cotton nightdress. She shivered in the chill air, her skin prickling with crackling flares of her power. Walking forward across the thick rug, she stared at his beloved face, the stubble on his chin, the exhaustion and tension in every muscle. When she was at the foot of the bed, she kicked off her slippers and then boosted herself up awkwardly on to the high mattress, shuffling on her knees until she was kneeling at his feet. He moved slightly, as though trying but failing to flee, and thin misty tendrils of colored fire swirled out to meet skin, his to her, and hers to him. She reached out and placed her hand against the top of one long bare male foot.

She moaned at the pleasure that flowed up her arm, so sweet it made her teeth ache and her nipples pebble instantly. But Cedric, Cedric practically flew, his entire body arching off the bed, a harsh scream erupting from his throat. His skin sizzled with power, and thick flares of blue and green flowed across her skin, caressing, drawing her closer.

She obeyed, crawling forward, her hands skimming across his feet, his ankles and calves. She pushed at the bottom edge of his robe, her hands stroking along the outer muscles of his thighs under the cream fabric. His eyes opened again, the fire blazing high as he gasped with her every touch. She straddled his calves, and gingerly sat on him, simultaneously heaping blessings and cursed the thin fabric that separated her skin from his.

The instructive pictures from the scrolls flashed in her minds eye - she'd read it as quickly as she could, and the patterns of the movements seemed engraved in her memory. She wondered how much of him she could touch without moving his robe - how much of his dignity she could leave intact, no matter how much she was curious to see the skin and surprisingly firm muscles she was stroking. His power surged again, and this time the fabric was no barrier at all, and the inside of her thighs burned where his calves erupted in magical flames, her most intimate flesh throbbing. She screamed, short and sharp, slamming her eyes closed and trying to breathe deep and pull herself back from the brink of climax.

"Sofia?"

She opened her eyes, and stared straight into brown - still too bright, still burning, but at least not that unnatural color. This time Cedric knew she was really, truly here.

"Hello Mr. Ceedric." Her hands stroked upward, farther under his robe over his hipbones and bypassing the interesting bump in the center of him, following the pattern she'd seen in the book while trying not to relish the feel of his muscles under her fingers, the warmth of his skin. She had little idea that bending forward this way made her nightdress gape open at the neckline, revealing a great deal of her breasts and stomach to Cedric's stunned gaze. He gulped loudly, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"How…why…."

The robe had been stretched past endurance and fell open, splitting from hem to the loosely tied belt, and the thick erection that had been hidden beneath the layers of linen bobbed up practically under her chin. She gasped. He gasped louder.

"Merlin's saggy balls - Sofia, run. Get out of here. I'm not sure how long I'll remain sane. I'm so sorry for…"

Sofia cut him off with a whisper. "I love you."

He swallowed thickly, his eyes darting between her face, and his cock throbbing under her chin. "Sofia, you can't, you don't…"

Sofia's voice grew steadily stronger. "I know you don't want to bond your magic with mine, but I know that right now you need me. Even if you or I weren't magical, I would want to touch you, to feel your skin next to mine, to make you mine. Even if I had to do this just to save your magic, to save your life, I would gladly do so. But look at this!" She let her magic flare without restraint, and the red and gold pulsed in waves through the room, rippling and flowing through the blue and green and purple fire until they were surrounded by a pulsing rainbow that slowly became a soft white mist. "My magic, my life is at stake as well. If I can save us both by doing something I long to do anyway...why is it so terrible? If you truly can't stand the thought of me…"

"How could I not love you, Sofia?" His eyes were warm and dark and naked with what she realized was longing. "How could I not want you, to bind you to me forever, but you are far far too good for me, don't waste…"

But Sofia had heard enough. Forget the scroll. Forget trying to do this the polite way. For once in her life, she decided to do something bad. She bent her head, and softly licked the very tip of him.

He groaned, and began to thrash under her, the blue green fire returning to his eyes. "Damn you, Princess. Save yourself while you still can."

She smiled softly at him. "No, _Master_ Cedric, I'm saving myself right now."

And she ran her tongue around the pulsing head of his cock, tasting him on her tongue and feeling her womb clench in response. The fire of his power was so strong, her tongue tickled deliciously, as though was was kissing lightning itself. He growled in response, a sound low and surprisingly sexy. She looked up at him watching her, his lips parted in shock and what she hoped was desire. She moved her hand to grip him, and the fire from her own hands combined with the glow of him, so concentrated around the pulsing length of him. She had never even seen an adult male's erect penis before, only what was on statues and badly drawn sketches in the girl's restroom at Royal Prep, and some very interesting books in the Royal Libraries in Tangu and throughout her travels. She'd heard whispers of the strangeness, the awkwardness of male anatomy, but she had to disagree. She found this part of him fascinating as all the rest.

She reached up her other hand to pluck loose the tie of his robe while sucking softly on the head of him, drawing another soft growl from him - he seemed once again unable to form words as the fire in his eyes burned bright enough to burn her clear to her center. The robe peeled back, revealing the plains of a firm stomach and the black swirls of tattoos covering his chest and outer thighs, just as she remembered from the one glance she'd had of him years ago. Her eyes widened, watching blue and green sparks swirl, following the runic patterns and her fingers reached up to trace a spiral below his left nipple. She left a rainbow behind, as the pink and gold of her own flames combined and merged with the burning green blue of his. She pulled back from him, letting him drop from her lips, and saw that everywhere she had touched him, she'd left the same burning multicolored paths, and as she looked at her hands, she realized she too was being altered, her hands full of a tingling rainbow of power more potent than she'd ever wielded before.

"Please…please…don't….don't stop." he gritted out though clenched teeth, and Sofia smiled up at him wickedly. She wrapped a shining palm around the base of him and sucked him into her mouth as deeply as she could, enjoying the firm pressure of him along her palette, and trying not to choke as he bumped the back of her throat. She still was working only from confusing instructions from books, but the interesting noises he was making, the roll of his hips toward her mouth, and the unending tingle of increasing power as he grew impossibly harder in her mouth made her feel confident that she was doing something right.

Her long travel braid fell to the side, tickling his inner thighs as she began to move up and down his length, simulating what she felt must be the motion of intercourse. She wanted to heal him, give him pleasure, but she didn't want to trap him into bonding – their magic or their bodies. Not that she was unwilling - not by any means, but he had never, in all the days she'd spent as his apprentice, all the hours shut away with him in his cozy tower, made the slightest inappropriate move, never once had she caught him looking at her with anything but friendship in his eyes before that fateful night they'd partially bonded.

He may have said he loved her - the words had been sweet, but she wanted to give him a choice.

She pulled away with a soft pop. "I want you, I want all of you Cedric. Say yes."

There as a long tense silence. Then a growl. "Yes, Titania's Tits, yes. You always get want you want Sofia."

She smiled that wickedly smug smile again, and lowered her head, sliding him and all the buzzing power of him into her mouth and brushing her tongue around the head of him, tasting the earthy salt of his flavor. She moved her hips where she straddled his calves, pressing her mound against the hardness of his shin. The power flowing both their skins pooled there against her heat and she moaned against him.

His hands finally moved, his long fingers threading through her hair as she took more of him deeper into her mouth and pressed him against the roof of her mouth, sucking hard. He gave a deep throated bark of her name and she felt him harden further and then flood her mouth with his salty, earthy essence.

And his power. So much power. Power slid down her throat and swept throughout her body, filling her from deep in her bones to surge into her skin. She let him slip from her lips as he continued to shake with his release, and she sat up, her body ablaze with light and her soul filled with a strange combination of unbearable arousal and sheer terror at the sheer volume of sensation. She never noticed when the clasp of the Amulet fell apart with a tiny click and slid down her body to lay unnoticed in the mussed sheets of the bed.

Sofia was shaking with the power she held, unable to see or hear or think, her body demanding something she couldn't fully understand. When Cedric laid his hands on her upper arms, she screamed, not sure if she was suffering with pain or extreme pleasure. He moved his hands soothingly over her arms and she calmed somewhat, the contact with his skin helping. She lifted her hands blindly to press against his bare chest, his skin so hot, the sparse hairs there tickling her palms deliciously. She moaned, then pulled away, yanking on the uncooperative fabric of her night dress and wanting no more barriers between them.

Cedric spoke softly, "Evanescet vestimenta" and then she was blissfully bare. He pulled her into his arms and she was sitting naked in his lap, his arms around her, her breasts pressed against his chest and his quickly recovering maleness trapped against her lower stomach. She gasped in shock and then moans, moving her breasts against his chest and relishing the sensations this caused in her hard nipples.

He kissed her then, his lips capturing hers and holding her as a willing captive. His mouth opened and she opened hers as naturally as breathing, welcoming his tongue as it taught hers to dance. Power surged between them, back and forth, colors swirling through them both, combining into a cocoon of rainbows to celebrate their union.

He moved to twist them on to their sides, and finally hovered over her, his wiry strength pressed against her own curves in all the best ways. His skin pressed against hers and she wrapped her legs around his thighs, arching her body into him, feeling sweet relief everywhere they touched, and yet her desire grew with those same sensations. He moved away from her mouth, pressing kisses to her jaw, her neck, her collarbone, as his hands skated over her hips, her ribs. One hand cupped a breast and Sofia opened her eyes wide, her vision returning to take in the glorious riot of color around surrounding them. She looked down to watch as he pressed a soft kiss to the hard peak of her nipple, the red gold flames dancing along her skin then disappearing into his mouth as he sucked the bud deep into his mouth.

She keened loudly and arched her body toward him. He cupped his hands around her shoulders to pull her flush to him, his body pressing her into the bed, his cock hard against her right thigh. She thrust her hands into his hair, holding him to her as he kissed and bit and sucked at her nipples, first one and then the other, and a tight, bright pleasure began at each nipple and sank into her womb where it waited hungrily for more.

Everywhere their skin met, flames of every color rose from their skin and combined, swirling and playing and breaking into white foam like a waves crashing into the coastline. It was a sensory feast that had Sofia shutting her eyes once again to retain her sanity in the blaze of pleasure and anticipation she was burning in.

Then Cedric nipped the skin on the underside of her left breast, making her gasp and open her eyes once again as he let go of her shoulders and pressed a line of quick, hard kisses to her stomach, one hip, and finally he settled his lean chest between her spread thighs and stared in open contemplation of her femininity.

She watched his face, wondering what he was thinking, trying to push away the sense of embarrassment that threatened to flood her. She knew she was slick and wet with need for him, and she knew what that meant – that she was more than ready to take his cock inside of her, if only he'd get on with it!

Instead he stared at her, his mouth slightly open in what she was beginning to believe was shock. Was something wrong with her down there?

Then he bent forward, pressing his long nose against her slick folds and he breathed in deeply. A single long, elegant finger stroked up her inner thigh and though those folds, exploring tentatively.

"You're so beautiful, Sofia. So soft and delicious. I never thought, I never could have hoped for this beauty." He spoke into the skin of her thigh, not taking his eyes from her vulva, from where his finger had found the swollen button at the top and had begun to stroke gently, lightly. She sucked in an enormous breath, tears gathering in her eyes at the sharp sweetness of that touch.

"Cedric!" was all she could say in response. "Please!" She hooked her legs over his shoulders, drawing to draw him closer.

Then his finger found her entrance, and Cedric pressed the tip of his tongue against her clit, and she couldn't stop her moans and screams and quick panting breaths as he took her higher and higher, holding down her hips with one hand as the other stroked that one finger within her tight channel. Then it was two fingers, exploring, caressing, and then stroking harder and faster, scissoring and pressing her open with gentle but firm pressure as his tongue and lips at her clit and folds drove her mad.

When he sucked her clit into his hot mouth, she broke, screaming his name and bucking her hips like a flying horse with a burr under her saddle. But he held her down, made her come hard enough to see stars, and the colors around them intensified, solidified, the flares growing hotter like actual flames as her bliss crested.

Cedric pushed his tongue into her entrance after sliding his fingers free, and he drank her down, the flood of sweet tangy pleasure irresistible, as was the flood of her power into him. He glowed with it, shone with it, his eyes burning with a thousand colors of flame as he looked up at her, his mouth and chin slick with her juices.

"Sofia." He spoke reverently, lovingly, yet his voice echoed deep with ancient power, making her stomach knot once again with intense need, despite the release she'd just had. "Sofia, I don't want to hurt you, to lose you. Our magic wants to combine, to bond us completely, and I'm terrified."

That he could admit such a thing was amazingly brave. She smiled at him as he hovered over her, holding himself over her, waiting for her. She buzzed with magic and lust and need for this man on every level – her heart, her body and her soul.

"This has been done before, Cedric – both recently and in the ancient past. The Maru had whole scrolls devoted to bonding. This is completely natural, and completely what I want. I want to bond with you more than anything."

He closed his eyes, almost with pain, before opening them to smirk at her, "And you couldn't tell me this before and relieve my misery? You couldn't come and try to make me give in to all your teasing seduction?"

She raised an eyebrow in perfect imitation of him. "I only just found out today. I came as soon as I could."

"Oh, you'll come all right. I may not have any experience but I have a very very good imagination when it comes to you, and a very extensive library."

She grinned in response and sat up enough to curl her hands over his shoulders, pulling him upward. He crawled up her body, and she could feel the hardness of his throbbing cock settle into the cradle of her thighs, brushing through the wetness of her recent pleasure. She thrust her hips up and Cedric groaned loudly.

"You are going to make me into a liar and make me come again before we can finish this bonding, Duchess."

She moaned at the word on his lips, unsure why it made her throb with need. "So stop all the delays and come inside me, merge your magic and your body with mine."

He stared into her eyes, and she grew silent and serious. Ignoring the power surging over her skin or the heat in her womb, she laid her heart open. "I love you, Cedric. I am already yours, and have been for a very long time. I will be yours forever."

His mouth fell open again, his eyes losing the fires of power to be replaced with his own liquid amber, and she could see so much there – awe and need and fear and love – so much love. "I love you, Sofia. You've broken me and remade me whole. I've been yours for a long, long time. I'll be yours always."

Those vows filled her heart, and happy tears stung her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss him. They kissed for long, passionate minutes, where they learned each other's mouths, the rhythm of each other's breath, and tasted the flavor of their own pleasure on each other's lips. Eventually, their instincts could not be denied, and Sofia rolled her hips in impatient circles, and Cedric groaned and thrust against her. Magic flared out once more, twisting and turning and merging around them, filling the room with more and more light, until they made love in the bright light of noon rather than the depths of the night.

There was no room for shyness though. Cedric reached down between them, once again thrusting a long finger inside of her, testing the slickness he found there, then he moved up once again to her clit, rubbing her in soft circles until she screamed out in frustration with this lonely pleasure.

"Now, Cedric! I need all of you!"

He swallowed thickly. "I don't want to hurt you."

She blew out a frustrated breath, and placed her hands against the tattoos on his chest and directed her flares straight into his skin. He groaned aloud, pumping his hips against hers as he glowed with the flood of her power and need. He was gorgeous as his power, green and purple, red and gold and brilliant white, flared out of him and back into her, desire made magically potent.

"Now!" she whimpered, desperate.

He finally gave in, and it was a wonderful surrender. He grasped his cock and placed it at her entrance, and she was so lost in her need she didn't tense up, welcoming the slow push of him, the slight burn of her slick walls as they stretched farther than before. He fought with everything in him to go slow, to let her adjust, he wasn't even halfway with in when she lost patience with him. She needed him, his body, his magic, inside of her completely. She wrapped her legs around the hard muscles of his arse and pulled herself up, impaling herself.

She sucked in a breath at the burn, but it was pushed aside completely as the magic surrounding them seemed to enter into her as his body had, thrusting into her body and straight into every nerve, bringing a tingling pleasure from her quim to her fingers, her toes to her nose. She tightened her legs higher, her feet pressing into his lower back, her hands wrapped around his ribs to stroke over the swirling tattoos on his upper back.

He hissed between clenched teeth, his eyes shut tight as he stayed preternaturally still except for the throbbing of his pulse within the stiff cock inside of her. She wriggled, impatient, needing him to move inside of and instinctively rubbed her clit against the sharp bone of his pelvis as he pressed into her.

"Stop, Sofia. You impatient, impossible woman. I can't...this...this in beyond anything I could imagine and I'm trying very hard not to disappoint you by spending my seed in the next three seconds." He kissed her lips softly, barely moving his body, and it was so innocently sweet that it shocked her with the sense of complete adoration.

So she waited, letting their magic swirl together inside of her, feeling as it moved back and forth between them with every shared breath, moving with the throb of their pulses. There was no going back. Their magic could never be torn apart now. They could never be torn apart. The realization made her heart swell. She would never be away from him for so long again.

She was so lost within them, in feeling their shared magic, that she gasped in shock as Cedric withdrew slowly. The loss felt devastating, terrible and burning and ….oh goddess, he thrust back in and it was so good, so right. Again, and again, out and then in. She learned to move her hips in his rhythm, their rhythm. The sensation of him sliding within her, of their magic twisting and merging, was addictive, and went from good to great to amazing to...guh, no words. Nothing but heat and sweat and light and magic. Faster and faster. He angled his hips differently, testing her reactions, and she adjusted her grip on his sides, moving her legs higher until – oh, there! There!

Hard thrusts, fast breaths, teeth biting into a shoulder, nails raking over hot slick skin. Magic merged, fractal rainbows turning to white clouds of hot mystical steam. His pleasure was hers, and hers was his. She clenched internal muscles she had only read about, knowing it would drive him over the edge and feeling his shock and pleasure as her own. He pressed fingers to her clit, knowing it was what she needed, feeling the bolt of pleasure swirl up her spine as though it was his own. Names were spoken into the hot air, thick with magic, names and pleas and sharp grunts and unspoken promises made binding vows. And after long moments hovering at the peak, they shattered, pleasure blazing, shrieking through her, and then him, and the magic exploded out of them both.

The tower shook, solid rock grating and shivering, and the room was a brilliant white, brighter than the hottest midday in the deserts of Tangu, bright as burning magnesium for his most arcane potions. Magic glowed through them, around them, and threatened to destroy them, except for a small sucking sound, so quiet neither of the exhausted and terrified lovers could hear it over the sound of their harsh breaths. But soon enough, the tower stopped shaking, and the light that made them both clench their eyes shut and hold each other so tightly in the fear for the other's safety dimmed to soft gold, and then orange, and then there was no light in the room except for a soft rose pink glow hidden beneath the cream flannel sheets.

Still embedded within Sofia, unwilling to be parted from her, Cedric flicked over the fabric and picked up the broken chain of the Amulet of Avalor, holding it gingerly in one hand. They both stared at it, and Cedric began to chuckle softly, and Sofia was shocked by the oddly arousing sensation of feeling him laugh while he was still within her. She thought she would be utterly drained from the incredibly intensity of pleasure followed by sheer terror that they were about to die, but no, she still wanted him. She chuckled too, and then they were both laughing hysterically, then kissing, then moaning as he hardened once again inside of her, and she arched her hips into his, asking for more.

He pulled away slightly, reluctantly kneeling and sitting up, though she still had her legs wrapped around him and she wouldn't let him go far. "I find it very entertaining that a magic object which has been used for centuries to aid the princesses of several realms with potent magic, apparently obtains the power for that magical aid from a very non-innocent activity."

Sofia chuckled again, moving her bare foot along his spine and enjoying the instinctive thrust of his hips at the sensation. "It's an artifact from Maru. And apparently they were not nearly as prudish as most cultures seem to be today."

She clenched those newly discovered muscles again and Cedric tensed, his teeth gritting as he sucked in a breath. Still holding the Amulet, he leaned down to grab her upper arms and hauled her to sit on his lap. He slid out of her during this process, and she whimpered in disappointment. "You must be hurting, Sofia. I was not nearly as gentle as I wished to be."

"You were everything I needed. And The only pain I feel is the pain of wanting you to be inside me once more." His eyes flared with fire once more – and magic crackled softly over his skin, pure white this time but softer, subtler, but still potent enough to make her burn for him again. With his empty hand he reached for her bedraggled braid, gently pulling the strands apart and watching as her auburn hair fell to her waist in soft waves. She shook her head slightly, delighting in the heat in his eyes as he looked at her.

Then he reached his hands around her neck, draping the Amulet across her collarbone and whispering a spell to mend the clasp perfectly. He stared at the jewel for a brief moment, before his eyes fell to the dark pink peaks of her nipples, and she felt his lust throb against her folds. She moved her hips, straining to move him inside her again, and he helped, pressing just so until he was sliding inside of her easily, and she felt all was right with the world once again.

"I think you better keep the Amulet on for a while yet, Sofia. It probably needs to be recharged thoroughly, given how much trouble you've gotten into over the years."

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him in for a kiss as she rolled her hips, and let her own pure white magic link again with his, and they were lost to anything else for the rest of the night.

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In the morning, The show of lights had to be explained away by the assorted magic users as part of Cedric's fever finally breaking. It took days for him to recover, and none of the Royal family was allowed to visit, for fear of contagion. The day he finally was recovered enough to leave his tower, Sofia unexpectedly arrived with no announcement and without fanfare, saying that she was just too homesick to wait another moment to come home. Strangely enough, neither Cedric or Sofia seemed to be able to walk very well, and seemed every bit as close as if she had never left. So odd.


End file.
